Differences in the autistic severity and developmental level of children with autism spectrum disorder of different gender and age / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the autistic severity and developmental level of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of different gender and age.Methods:From March 2018 to February 2019, a total of 286 ASD children aged 18-96 months were enrolled.Severity of ASD was evaluated by the autism behavior checklist (ABC) and the childhood autism rating scale (CARS), while the Griffiths mental development scales-Chinese (GDS-C) was used to evaluate the children's mental development.According to gender and age, ASD severity and developmental levels of different subgroups were analyzed.SPSS 23.0 statistical software was used to analyze the data.According to the non-normal distrbution of variables, Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison between the two groups, and Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison between multiple groups and Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between two variables. Results:No gender difference was found in the total scores of ABC (52(40, 62), 57(36, 67), Z=0.661, P=0.509) and CARS (31(28, 35), 33(27, 36), Z=0.672, P=0.502) between the ASD boys and ASD girls.No gender difference was found in the total scores of ABC (43(33, 53), 52(34, 58), Z=0.717, P=0.473) and CARS (29(26, 32), 27(26, 30), Z=0.212, P=0.832) between the ASD boys and ASD girls when the general quotient of the GDS-C were all greater than or equal to 70 points.Also, no gender difference was found in the total ABC (55(44, 67), 59(40, 67), Z=0.067, P=0.947) and CARS (32(30, 35), 34(30, 36), Z=0.657, P=0.511) between the ASD boys and ASD girls when the general quotient of the GDS-C were all less than 70 points.The eye-hand coordination (64(52, 77), 60(43, 72), Z=2.138, P=0.033), performance (68(51, 86), 59(43, 68), Z=3.270, P=0.001), and practical reasoning (68(55, 91), 51(33, 58), Z=2.686, P=0.007) quotients of the ASD boys were significantly higher than those of the ASD girls.Compared with boys, a markedly higher proportion of developmental delay (35(80%), 124(51%), χ 2=12.083, P=0.001) was recorded for girls in relation to the performance subscale.There were significant differences in the total scores of ABC and CARS, the locomotor and eye-hand coordination quotients in GDS-C among ASD children of different ages(all P<0.05). The older the first diagnosis age, the lower the scores.The age of initial diagnosis was negatively correlated with the total scores of ABC ( r=-0.259), CARS ( r=-0.268), general quotient of GDS-C ( r=-0.127), locomotor ( r=-0.275), eye-hand coordination ( r=-0.213), performance ( r=-0.160) and practical reasoning ( r=-0.307) (all P<0.05), while positively correlated with hearing and language development quotient ( r=0.143) ( P<0.05). Conclusion:No significant gender difference was found on the severity of ASD in children aged 18 to 96 months, but the developmental level of some areas in boys was better than that of girls with ASD.ASD severity and developmental level vary depending on the age at which their ASD was diagnosed.The age of initial diagnosis is related to the severity and developmental level of ASD.