Prevalence of Autism in Patients Who Reported for Disability

Introduction: Autism is a disorder with stereotyped behaviors, reduced communication skills and problems in social development. There is also high incidence of intellectual disability among the autistic individuals. However the prevalence is increasing which may be due to changes in diagnostic procedures, practice and standards, or due to increase in incidence or may be due to diagnostic oversubstitution.
Aim: To study prevalence of autism in patient who reported for disability.
Materials & Methods: The present study is a retrospective study which was conducted over a period of 2 and half year from July 2017 to December 2019 among all the patients who reported for disability in the Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital Jammu. After getting clearance from the institutional ethical committee the records of all these patients seen during this period were reviewed and the diagnosis of all these patients was confirmed according to ICD 10.
Results: The prevalence of autism in patients who reported for disability was 64.5%. 76.1% autistic patients were males whereas 23.9% were females. 69% autistic patients were below 6 years of age followed by 26.8% who were in the age group of 7 to 12 years and only 4.2% patients were between 13 to 18 years of age.
Conclusion: From present study we conclude that there is high prevalence of autism among the patients who reported for disability. Hence appropriate measures should be taken up by the concerned authorities for the early identification of children with autism so that early intervention for the better outcome can be done.

Keywords: Autism, Disability, Prevalence.