Completeness of case ascertainment for surveillance of autism spectrum disorders using the autism developmental disabilities monitoring network methodology.
BACKGROUND
The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM), sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the largest-scale project ever undertaken to identify the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the United States.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the present study was to examine the accuracy of the ADDM methodology in terms of completeness of case ascertainment; that is, to assess the success of the ADDM Network in identifying and accurately classifying all existing cases of ASD among 8-year-old children in the target study areas.


METHODS
To accomplish this objective, the ADDM methodology was applied to a selected region of South Carolina for 8-year olds in 2000 (birth year 1992) and again seven years later for the same region and birth year.


RESULTS
For this region and birth year, completeness of case ascertainment was high, with prevalence estimates of 7.6 per 1000 at both ages 8- and 15-years. For children common to both surveillance years, concordance in case status was also high (82%).


CONCLUSIONS
Given that prevalence did not change within this region and birth year, continued research is needed to better understand the changes in prevalence estimates being found by the ADDM network across surveillance groups.
Department of Medicine, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425-8350, USA. nicholjs@musc.edu
Joyce S
JS
Nicholas
Laura A
LA
Carpenter
Lydia B
LB
King
Walter
W
Jenner
Amy
A
Wahlquist
Sarah
S
Logan
Jane M
JM
Charles
D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States