Assessing autism in females: The importance of a sex-specific comparison

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed more often in boys than girls. Here, we compared the degree of autism - and related disorders - symptomatology in boys and girls with a registered diagnosis of ASD. We used parent telephone interview A-TAC (Autism-Tics, ADHD and other Comorbidities) ratings of 30,392 twins aged 9 or 12 (including 308 boys and 122 girls with National Patient Register diagnoses of ASD) participating in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden. We used z-scores for ASD-symptoms, standardized separately for boys and girls. Boys with a diagnosis of ASD had a higher raw mean score than girls with a diagnosis on the A-TAC ASD domain. However, utilizing the z-scores, girls with a diagnosis of ASD deviated further away from the female population mean than did the boys with ASD from the male population mean. Girls also had higher standardized mean values for symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The findings suggest that girls diagnosed with autism may represent an even more extreme end of the female population autistic features distribution, than diagnosed boys from the male population autistic features distribution. Future studies may benefit from examining the use of sex-specific cut-off scores

The development of a brief screener for autism using item response theory

Background: Brief screening instruments focusing on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that can be administered in primary care are scarce; there is a need for shorter and more precise instruments. The Autism-Tics, AD/HD and other Comorbidities inventory (A-TAC) has previously been validated for ASD reporting excellent validity. This study aims to determine the psychometric properties of each item in the ASD domain (17 items) in the A-TAC using item response theory (IRT), and thereby construct and validate a short form that could be used as a screening instrument in the general population. Methods: Since 2004, parents of all 9-year-old Swedish twins have been invited to participate in a telephone interview in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS). The CATSS is linked to the National Patient Register (NPR), which includes data from in- and outpatient care. Data on ASD (A-TAC) collected in CATSS were compared with diagnoses from the NPR. Diagnoses that had been made both before (previous validity) and after (predictive validity) the interviews were included. The sample was divided into a developmental sample and a validation sample. An IRT model was fitted to the developmental sample and item parameters were used to select a subset of items for the short form. The performance of the proposed short form was examined in the validation sample by the use of receiver operation characteristic curves. Results: Four items which were able to discriminate among individuals with more autism traits were deemed sufficient for use in the short form. The values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for a clinical diagnosis of ASD was.95 (previous validity) and.72 (predictive validity). Conclusions: The proposed short form with 4 out of the original 17 items from A-TAC, showed excellent previous validity while the predictive validity was fair. The validity of the short form was in agreement with previous validations of the full ASD domain. The short form can be a valuable screening instrument in primary care settings in order to identify individuals in need for further assessment and for use in epidemiological studies

L'Avenir de Luchon : journal scientifique, littéraire, annonces et réclames : guide général des baigneurs et des touristes aux eaux thermales, bains de mer de la France et de l'étranger

18 janvier 19031903/01/18 (N2)-1903/01/18.Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : MidiPyren