Autism Risk Rates

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This to be one of the big news items of the day. While it is interesting information to know I'm unclear as to how this is helpful to all of the autistic people we have with us now.

Autism Risk 'High' For Kids With Older Sibling With The Disorder
Autism specialists have long thought the disorder has a strong genetic component -–maybe stronger than any other neurodevelopmental condition.

Now a new study — the largest so far to look at autism in younger brothers and sisters of an affected child — finds their risk of also having autism is higher than previously thought, especially if the younger sibling is a boy.

The overall risk that a younger sibling of an autistic child will have the disorder is 19 percent, the researchers found. Earlier, smaller studies had pegged the risk at 3 to 14 percent.
But if the younger sibling is male, the risk shoots up to more than one in four, according to the study, which appears online in the journal Pediatrics. "That's a really high rate compared to the risk of autism in the general population, which is 1 in 110," saysSally Ozonoff of the University of California, Davis, who led the research.

By contrast, if the younger sibling is a girl, her risk of autism is 9 percent.

And if a family has two or more children with autism, the risk among younger siblings goes up even more — to 1 in 3.

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