Abstract
This study estimated ASD prevalence in a cohort of 3-year-old very preterm children (N = 55) and investigated the usefulness of parent-reported ASD screeners and the ADOS-2. 12.7% received an ASD diagnosis by clinical judgment based on DSM-5 criteria. An additional 14.5% were classified as having a broader-autism-phenotype outcome. Sensitivity values for the screeners were poor, whereas specificity values ranged from poor to excellent. The ADOS-2 identified all children with ASD and had a fair specificity. These findings confirm the elevated ASD prevalence made by previous studies with preterm children but also highlight the challenges of successfully identifying ASD in this at-risk group. Caution is warranted when interpreting results of ASD instruments with the currently available cut-off scores and algorithms, especially when developmental challenges are present.
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgments
Tis research was supported by the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO—G.0939.12 N). We are thankful to all the parents and their children who participated in the study, the staff of the Centre of Developmental Disorders of the Ghent University Hospital, and the staff of the Neonatal Intensive Care of the General hospital of Saint-Jan Bruges-Ostend.
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Recruitment, data collection, analyses and interpretation was done by JV. HR was supervising the recruitment and data collection and provided substantial feedback on the analyses and interpretation of the data. He was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. LV was also involved with the recruitment and data collection and provided additional feedback on the manuscript. AC, FF, and AA also helped with the recruitment of the study and provided additional feedback on the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University Ghent (Belgium) on the 2nd of February 2013. Participation was voluntary and the confidentiality of the child and caregiver(s) was protected.
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Vermeirsch, J., Verhaeghe, L., Casaer, A. et al. Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder in Toddlers Born Very Preterm: Estimated Prevalence and Usefulness of Screeners and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1508–1527 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04573-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04573-6