June 18, 2021, NJ Spotlight News: Responding to New Jersey’s high and rising rates of autism https://www.njspotlight.com/video/responding-to-new-jerseys-high-and-rising-rates-of-autism/
New Jersey, where autism has been on the rise for decades, the rate is now the highest in the nation. New research from Rutgers University pinpoints the startling increase. It climbed from roughly 1% in 2000 up to 3% and even 5% today in some parts of the state, prompting questions about whether there will be enough resources and services to keep up with demand. In May, First Children Services opened a new center in Roselle Park to provide a continuum of services starting with diagnosis. Matt Hess, CEO of First Children Services, said the goal is to continue opening such centers as the demand in New Jersey continues to increase. VIDEO: The goal at …First Children Services ...is to do activities in a natural group setting while being paired with individual behavior technicians providing Applied Behavioral Analysis or ABA services. … This center …opened in May and CEO Matt Hess says it provides a continuum of services starting with diagnosis. … Hess says the plan is to open more centers as the demand in New Jersey continues to increase. WALTER ZAHORODNY: It’s very unusual to find a disorder, a disability, some health problem increasing so dramatically in a brief period of time. REPORTER: Associate professor of pediatrics, Walter Zahorodny, has been tracking autism in school districts in four New Jersey counties since 2000 ZAHORADNY: Autism has increased from about one percent to this new range which is somewhere between three and five percent, in some districts. REPORTER: Ocean County, for example, had an overall rate of five percent. ZAHORODNY: Boys are much more likely to have autism than girls, so when you’re talking about a five percent rate overall, what you’re really revealing is a prevalence of autism among boys of eight percent. Newark has that. Toms River has a rate among boys approaching twelve percent. REPORTER: Reasons are still unclear as to what may be causing these spikes, but Zahoradny’s research shows New Jersey’s rate of autism is higher than anywhere else in the U.S. where it’s tracked by the CDC. ZAHORODNY: Maternal age, paternal age, prematurity, ow birth weight, prenatal exposure to certain drugs [has been shown] to affect autism prevalence, that is to increase the risk at little bit. But none of those little changes are enough to explain a 200 percent increase. So I think we still have some important risk factor, trigger or triggers left to discover. MATT HESS: Some will say it’s due to the fact that we’re better at diagnosing it and treating it and kind of identifying children that are on the spectrum.
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