the proportion of children and adolescents in the United States, who have intellectual disabilities such as Autism has increased by 17% since the end of the 1990s, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Between 1997 and 2008, the number of children with disabilities increased by 8.2 million to approximately $ 10 million, or more than 15% of all children aged 3 to 17, researchers have discovered.
This upward trend is due in large part by waves in the number of children found in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although the prevalence of disorders of learning and stuttering has also increased.
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The study, which appears in the issue of the journal Pediatrics, is June first data nationally representative on intellectual disabilities have been collected since 1988, said Sheree Boulet, Ph.d., one of the authors of the study and an epidemiologist at the National Center on birth defects and developmental disabilities DCC.
The reasons for the increase are not clear, but increasing awareness and increasing the acceptance of intellectual disabilities have probably played a large role, Boulet said. For example, she explains, the availability of early and effective treatments for conditions such as ADHD could be encouraging parents more so that their children are examined for the disorder.
The results of the study are to be expected, given the "increased awareness and reporting much better," said Alan Hilfer, PhD, Director of psychology to Moses Maimonides Medical Center, New York. (Hilfer has not participated in the new search.)
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At the same time, the occurrence of a disability can be truly increases. A shift towards having babies later in life, most of the preterm birth and the use of fertility treatment - which are all factors of risk of developmental disabilities - growth could contribute to higher rates, say researchers.
The findings "indicate that there is some prevention strategies more that can be put in use", said Boulet.
The study is based on surveys of health nationally representative which included in-person interviews with almost 120 000 children across the country. During the interviews, the researchers asked parents if their children had been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, seizure, interruptions or shuttering, hearing loss, blindness or intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation).
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The overall disability rate rose nearly 13 percent to 15 percent in the 12 year study period a little more. In 2008, the most common disabilities were ADHD (7.6%) and disorders of learning (7.2%). Approximately 0.75% of the children had been diagnosed with autism, place of 0.19% in 1997.
The only handicap to decrease was hearing moderate to deep, who went down 31%.
The differences in rates of diagnosis through economic, ethnic and gender lines are striking, says ball.
Almost twice as many boys that girls had a disability, for example. It may be because some genetic defects are more likely to be inherited by males, although it might also be that symptoms of ADHD and other handicaps are more obvious in boys and are therefore more likely to be diagnosedthe study notes.
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Rates were also significantly higher than average children of low-income families and children on Medicaid. Hispanic children have a lower rate of white or black child disabilities, which may reflect the language difficulties and other obstacles to access to health services rather than the actual rate of persons with disabilities.
The increase in disability in the points of the study to the growing need for specialized health and services social (such as mental health services and therapists), Boulet and his colleagues said. However, due to budgetary pressures in any system of health care, children are at risk of pass next to exactly this kind of specialized treatment and prevention, Hilfer, said.
"We are more aware that early intervention is the key for the greatest success in these kids", he said, [but] we need resources to do so. "Copyright Health Magazine 2010
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