Early signs of autism could be detected as soon as child’s first month of life with new algorithm, US study shows
- Gathering information automatically as the child receives care, the algorithm could alert doctors to the higher likelihood of a later diagnosis of autism
- Raising concerns early could give a family time and mental energy to prepare for whatever might come, and allow therapies to start quickly
Signs of autism can be picked up as early as the first month of life, according to a new study from Duke University, in the US, that used children’s health records to create an algorithm.
“Infants who will go on to get a diagnosis of autism show very different early patterns of healthcare utilisation,” she said.
Though the findings still need to be confirmed with further studies, if red flags for autism could be spotted in a child’s earliest days, paediatricians and parents could be put on alert and therapies quickly started.
“The most important contribution of this study is we can use the first 30 days of a child’s healthcare experience to say, ‘This child is really at risk,’” said David Mandell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, in the US, who was not involved in the research.
What the study found
The study relied on electronic medical records of 45,000 children who had been seen in the Duke University Health System as infants between January 2006 and December 2020.
