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Case Reports
. 2023 Sep:260:113514.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113514. Epub 2023 May 25.

Delay from Screening to Diagnosis in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from a Large National Health Research Network

Yu-Hsin Chen  1 , Madison Drye  2 , Qiushi Chen  3 , Madison Fecher  2 , Guodong Liu  4 , Whitney Guthrie  5
Affiliations
Case Reports

Delay from Screening to Diagnosis in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from a Large National Health Research Network

Yu-Hsin Chen et al. J Pediatr. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

To examine delay from developmental screening to autism diagnosis, we used real-world health care data from a national research network to estimate the time between these events. We found an average delay of longer than 2 years from first screening to diagnosis, with no significant differences observed by sex, race, or ethnicity.

Keywords: autism; developmental screening; diagnostic delay; electronic health records data.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (1R21MH128646-01A1 to Q.C. and W.G., 1R21MH119480-01A1 to G.L.), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1 TR002014), and the Brad Hollinger Autism Research Endowment (G.L.). The funders had no role in the study design; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; the writing of the report; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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