Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder with High- Functioning among Children Aged 7–12 Years Old

Background. Many people with high-functioning autism are not diagnosed and treated until pre-school or early school years. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in students aged 7-12 from Arak city in order to identify these students and protect them against further harm by early intervention.

Methods. This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted to investigate 2864 male and female students having an IQ of 70 or higher and completing their first to sixth grades in primary schools located in Arak between October 2017 and June 2018, by using the ASSQ questionnaire. This questionnaire had been designed to screen the autism spectrum, and its validity and reliability had been confirmed by Kasechi at the University of Social Welfare Sciences in 2013 in Tehran. Individuals scoring 22 or higher on the questionnaire were identified as having high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

Results. A total of 2864 elementary school students with an average age of 9.16 years (minimum 7 years and maximum 12 years) and completing the first to sixth grades were evaluated. According to the results, 1.7% of students had high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. The age variable with P-value=0.003 (the highest prevalence (3.1%) was recorded for the age group of 7 years and the lowest prevalence (0.7%) was found for the age group of 8 and 9 years) and the gender variable with P=0.002 (1.1% of male students and 2.3% of female students) made significant difference in the prevalence of this disorder. Moreover, the prevalence of the disorder was higher in girls than in boys.

Conclusion. High-functioning autism spectrum disorder was a latent disorder with a relatively high prevalence, which was higher in girls than in boys. Furthermore, the prevalence was not age-related, and there was a possibility for the occurrence of this disorder’s symptoms at any age.