§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proportion of children who have been diagnosed with autism and born since 1990 are male; [37419]
(2) at what age autism is most commonly diagnosed. [37418]
§ Jacqui SmithIn December 2001 the Medical Research Council (MRC) published a comprehensive review of autism research, which provides an authoritative overview of the current state of knowledge on the epidemiology and causes of autism. The report, which was commissioned by the Department and included a wide range of experts and a "lay" group including autism charities and parents, is available on the MRC website at www.mrc.ac.uk. It provides a broad account of the best available information about autism spectrum disorders, including issues concerning diagnosis.
On age at diagnosis, the report says:
There are a number of studies reporting that the majority of parents are aware that something is not quite right in the months leading up to the second birthday. In a study of individuals aged two to over 40 years, the average age at diagnosis was five years for autism and 11 years for Asperger disorder. Age at diagnosis is likely, however, to vary greatly by region (according to services available), by year (with age at diagnosis falling in many places) and by the nature of the autistic spectrum disorder (with high-functioning, and perhaps severely intellectually impaired, people being diagnosed later).Information about the proportion of children born with autism since 1990 who are male is not available.