Prof. Newschaffer Speaks to Congressional Caucus on Autism

Prof. Craig J. Newschaffer, PhD, Chair of the Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, and a leading autism expert, told the Congressional Caucus on Autism Research and Education on February 8 that the release of federal data on autism prevalence marks a significant advance for autism epidemiology in the United States.

Dr. Newschaffer was invited to speak to the Congressional caucus to offer his expert opinion on the new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) autism and developmental disabilities monitoring (ADDM) project, which indicated, in 14 communities across the United States, that nearly seven in 1,000 eight-year-old children had an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The data, collected at multiple project sites nationwide, represents the best available estimate of the prevalence of autism in the United States. The findings from the ADDM project for calendar years 2000 and 2002 were released at noon on February 8, 2007.

There are a total of 14 ADDM project sites across the nation, including sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. Dr. Newschaffer, who joined the faculty of the Drexel University School of Public Health in September 2006, was one of the first ADDM project principal investigators, and remains affiliated with the Maryland ADDM project site.

Dr. Newschaffer told Congress "Not only do the ADDM findings provide clear evidence that autism should be a major public health concern in the United States, the data can also be used to support the development of programs and policies to help children with autism. As the ADDM project continues we will be better equipped to understand trends in autism prevalence and monitor the impact of new programs, like those designed to identify autism at earlier ages."

Dr. Newschaffer also commented on how the ADDM project can help identify causes of autism: "The ADDM project can investigate a limited set of possible autism risk factors and these analyses have been started. However, there are other complementary projects now underway, including the CDC-funded Study to Explore Early Development, the SEED study, designed specifically to discover risk factors."

The SEED study will soon be recruiting participants in the Philadelphia area as well as in Baltimore and four other sites around the country.

"Autism is a serious public health problem which impacts too many children and their families," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "The data we are presenting today will help us better understand the extent of this problem, and enable us to continue to focus on promising areas of research in hopes that our children can grow and lead the happiest and most productive life possible."

"CDC has been working diligently to get an accurate understanding of the number of children affected by autism," said Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of CDC’s autism program. "We share the ADDM Network partners’ commitment in documenting the prevalence of autism."

The year 2000 and year 2002 findings from the ADDM project will be published in the February 9, 2007 edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Prof. Newschaffer was also quoted in "Report: Autism rate higher than thought," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 2007.