A NEW study plans to get a better picture of autism prevalence in Ireland by asking consenting parents of primary-school age children to fill out questionnaires.
“We don’t have any official numbers on the prevalence of autism/autism spectrum disorder [ASD] at present in Ireland,” said principal investigator Dr Mary Rose Sweeney, a lecturer in health systems research at Dublin City University’s School of Nursing.
“The prevalence of ASD is estimated to be one in 100 in the UK and between one in 100 to one in 150 in the USA depending on the region you live in.”
The Irish study, which is funded by Irish Autism Action, has already completed a pilot phase in Dublin, where the mechanics of the study worked well and response rates were very high, according to Dr Sweeney.
Over the coming school year, study packs will be distributed to schools in Galway and Waterford.
“We are asking parents in the selected schools to complete our study booklet which contains a screening instrument which has been previously used to screen for autism spectrum disorder,” explained Dr Sweeney, who is working on the project with Prof Anthony Staines and Andrew Boilson at DCU.
“Children who have scores above a certain cut-off score will be invited for additional screening.
“However, as we are also interested in looking at how various other screening instruments perform against the we may also invite children who fall into normal range scores to complete an additional screener. Parents would be advised of this at the outset.”
It’s anticipated that many of the children identified with ASD in the study would probably already have a diagnosis, commented Dr Sweeney.
“However, those who have not had a prior diagnosis will be invited to attend for secondary screening and then may ultimately be referred for multidisciplinary assessment,” she said, adding that the study findings could help inform how resources are managed.
“The information will be very useful to the Department of Education so that resources can be allocated per child and per regions into the future,” she said.
