Likelihood of receiving an autism diagnosis may depend on where you live
New autism diagnoses tend to be clustered within specific NHS service regions, suggesting that where an individual lives may influence whether they receive an autism diagnosis and access to special education needs support. There are clear inequalities in an individual's likelihood of receiving an autism diagnosis, whether they are socioeconomic factors, ethnicity or even which NHS region or local authority someone lives in Carol Brayne The latest findings, from researchers from the University of Cambridge in collaboration with researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Newcastle University, are published today in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health . After analysing all new autism cases across England using NHS health service boundaries for possible hotspots, some areas stand out. For example, 45.5% of the NHS Rotherham catchment area had higher-than-average new autism diagnoses clusters. For NHS Heywood, this amounted to 38.8% of its catchment area and 36.9% for NHS Liverpool, pointing at a possible health service effect towards who receives an autism diagnosis. Of the 32 million pupils studied, more than 102,000 new autism diagnoses were identified between 2014 and 2017. After adjusting for age and sex, the researchers found that one in 234 children were given a new autism diagnosis during that four-year period.
