Approximately 3% of American children have received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in their lifetime, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers noted that although effective behavioral and medication-based treatments are available for children with the condition, almost 30% of children with current diagnoses are not being treated.

“Previous studies suggest that 46% to 56% of children with ASD had taken at least one psychotropic medication in the past year,” Guifeng Xu, MD, from the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and colleagues wrote. “Presently, little is known about the status of behavioral and pharmacological treatment patterns of ASD in children in the United States.”

Xu and colleagues examined data collected from a 2016 nationwide, population-based, cross-sectional survey of 43,032 children aged between 3 and 17 years.

The prevalence of ASD among American children remained “relatively high,” they said, with the weighted prevalence of children who were ever diagnosed estimated to be 2.79%. This number was comparable to a 2016 estimate (2.76%), which was derived from nationally representative data that were published earlier this year by Xu and colleagues.

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