title: Short report: Improving record-review surveillance of young children with an autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Records-based autism spectrum disorder surveillance developed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been extended to younger cohorts, although the utility of additional record sources has not been examined. We therefore conducted a pilot project to describe whether Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance could identify younger children with an autism spectrum disorder evaluated as part of an ongoing screening study at Georgia State University.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 31 families of children who screened positive for autism spectrum disorder and received a clinical evaluation at Georgia State University agreed to participate in the project. Of these, 10 children lived inside the surveillance area and had records abstracted and reviewed for this project. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance results (i.e. autism spectrum disorder or non-autism spectrum disorder) were compared with Georgia State University evaluation results (i.e. autism spectrum disorder or non-autism spectrum disorder).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 4 of the 10 children were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder after the Georgia State University evaluation. None of the 4 children with an autism spectrum disorder were identified by current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance methods but all 4 children were identified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance methods when additional record sources were included (i.e. records from the statewide early intervention program and Georgia State University evaluation).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that partnering with early intervention programs and encouraging early autism spectrum disorder screening might improve autism spectrum disorder surveillance among young children.
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, MS E-86, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. lwiggins@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Lisa D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wiggins
authors.forename: Diana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Robins
authors.forename: Marshalyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yeargin-Allsopp
mesh_terms: D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States