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. 2016 Nov;46(11):3607-3614.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-2879-1.

Brief Report: Prevalence of Self-injurious Behaviors among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Population-Based Study

Gnakub N Soke  1 , Steven A Rosenberg  2 , Richard F Hamman  3 , Tasha Fingerlin  3 , Cordelia Robinson  2   4 , Laura Carpenter  5 , Ellen Giarelli  6 , Li-Ching Lee  7 , Lisa D Wiggins  8 , Maureen S Durkin  9 , Carolyn DiGuiseppi  3
Affiliations

Brief Report: Prevalence of Self-injurious Behaviors among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Population-Based Study

Gnakub N Soke et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2016 Nov.

Abstract

Self-injurious behaviors (SIB) have been reported in more than 30 % of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in clinic-based studies. This study estimated the prevalence of SIB in a large population-based sample of children with ASD in the United States. A total of 8065 children who met the surveillance case definition for ASD in the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network during the 2000, 2006, and 2008 surveillance years were included. The presence of SIB was reported from available health and/or educational records by an expert clinician in ADDM Network. SIB prevalence averaged 27.7 % across all sites and surveillance years, with some variation between sites. Clinicians should inquire about SIB during assessments of children with ASD.

Keywords: Autism; Autism spectrum disorder; Challenging behaviors; Prevalence; Self-injurious behaviors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest All authors reported no conflicts of interest.

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