Wealth and air pollution emerge as top predictors of state autism rates

Key Points:

• A study published in Psychological Reports found that a U.S. state's socioeconomic status (SES) and levels of microscopic air pollution are the strongest independent predictors of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence across states, explaining over 55% of the variance in autism rates.
• While many factors such as urbanization, maternal age, healthcare access, and education spending initially correlated with autism rates, most lost significance once SES was controlled for, highlighting SES and air pollution as key influences.
• The research used state-level data from 2017 and employed statistical controls to isolate effects, but the cross-sectional design limits causal interpretations, and higher SES may reflect better diagnostic access rather than increased biological incidence.
• Supplementary analysis showed that the predictors for autism did not apply similarly to ADHD, suggesting the findings are specific to ASD rather than neurodevelopmental disorders in general.
• The study emphasizes the need for further research into factors like parental age and cautions against ecological fallacies when applying state-level findings to individuals, underscoring the complexity of autism's environmental and socioeconomic determinants.