...CDC officials acknowledged the limitations of their analysis. In surveillance areas where researchers had access only to health records, and not school records, prevalence estimates were generally lower. Including the capital city of Raleigh in North Carolina's surveillance area dramatically increased the state's rate.
"Our study really is more of a study of demographic differences and population differences," said Jon Baio, a CDC epidemiologist and principal investigator on the report.
The researchers hope, however, that the study will draw attention to the need for more vigorous screening early in children's lives. Research shows that early intervention offers autistic children the best long-term prospects
More than a fifth of children identified as autistic by the CDC had no autism diagnoses in their records.
Dr. Coleen Boyle, director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said that children "still aren't being identified enough." ...