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New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests autism affects one in 59 children. That's an increase from previous estimates of one in 68.
The data, collected in 2014 by the CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, looked at over 320,000 eight-year-olds across 11 states. While the average incidence of autism was one in 59, there were noticeable differences between communities: with a rate of one in 34 in New Jersey being the high, compared to about one in 75 in five other states.
Dr. Veena Ahuja, pediatric psychiatrist at Cleveland Clinic Children's, joined Rick Jackson to discuss the findings.