Prévalence de l’autisme et autres troubles envahissants du développement : données des registres français de population. Générations 1995–2002

Aim and background

In France, prevalence data of pervasive developmental disorders in children are rare despite recently dedicated public health plans aimed to improve the knowledge and types of care of these disorders. Within this context, the two French childhood disabilities registers of Haute-Garonne and Isere counties have been asked to provide recent prevalence data on autism spectrum disorders.

Methods

These two population-based registers record all the cases of pervasive developmental disorders in children residing in covered counties in their eighth year of life, after parental approval. Data are actively collected from the medical records available in various data sources. The main data source is the “county house for people with disabilities” i.e. the local authority which determines the orientation for special education and the decision of special allocation for disabled children. Other data sources are “autism resource centres” and psychiatric hospitals. Diagnoses were coded according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD 10). For this analyze, diagnoses selected were typical and atypical autism (F84.0 and F84.1), Asperger disorder (F84.5), other pervasive developmental disorders (F84.8) and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (F84.9). The data presented here concerned children born between 1995 and 2002. Prevalence rates were calculated for 10 000 children living in their eighth year of life in each counties.

Results

The overall prevalence rate in the eighth year of life over the whole study period was 31.9 per 10,000 children in Haute-Garonne and 34.9 per 10,000 in Isere, with a significant increasing trend between 1995 and 2002 in Haute-Garonne county. The sex-ratio was 3.8 and 3.5 respectively in Haute-Garonne and Isere. In both counties, about half of the children had an associated intellectual deficiency and about one third if only severe impairment (defined by an IQ below 50) was considered. An epilepsy was more often present when an intellectual deficiency was associated.

Conclusion

Data from the two French registers were quite comparable and demonstrated that prevalence rates of pervasive developmental disorders in the eighth year of life were in the lower range of those published in the international literature.