Abstract：Objective To estimate the prevalence of autism and to characterize dysfunctions in autistic children aged 3 to 6 years in Shantou central city.Methods We included autistic children born between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2010, who lived in Jinping and Dragon Lake District of Shantou and were institutionalized in 11 rehabilitation facilities registered at the Disabled Federation in Shantou. Demographic data for children aged 3-6 years on July 1, 2013 were used to estimate the prevalence. All cases had received comprehensive assessment on verbal communication ability assessment, social interaction ability assessment and other six aspects. Two researchers rated 5 to 1 points to each aspect based on the assessment information, Less than or equal to 3 points was identified as dysfunction.Results 139 children have been diagnosed with autism in 51 968 children aged 3 to 6 years old. Overall, the prevalence was 2.67 per 1 000. The prevalence of boys and girls were 4.07 per 1 000 and 1.14 per 1 000, respectively. The highest prevalence was 6.54 per 1 000 in 4 year-old boys. Main dysfunctions of autistic children included language communication (95.4%), social interaction (93.1%), cognition (87.7%), self-care ability (84.6%), sense of perception (83.1%), mood and behavior (75.3%), fine motor (72.3%), and gross motor (68.4%).Conclusion Besides dysfunctions of language communication and social interaction, most autistic children have two or more other dysfunctions. The prevalence of autism in Shantou shows no difference with published data obtained through community sample survey in other areas, suggesting that secondhand data collation and analysis in cities with good autistic rehabilitation training system is a cheap, quick and reliable method to estimate autism prevalence.
王志隆, 李宏田, 张磊, 林智宏, 周玉博, 邱长奕, 黄庆军, 刘建蒙. 汕头市中心城区3～6岁儿童孤独症患病与功能障碍状况调查[J]. 中国生育健康杂志, 2014, 25(6): 491-494.
WANG Zhilong, LI Hongtian, ZHANG Lei, LIN Zhihong, ZHOU Yubo, QIU Changyi, HUANG Qingjun, LIU Jianmeng. Prevalence of autism and dysfunctions in autistic children aged 3 to 6 years in Shantou City. Chinese Journal of Reproductive Health, 2014, 25(6): 491-494.
