ArticleAutism : the international journal of research and practice2016
Does sex influence the diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder in adults?
Article in Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is There a Bias Towards Males in the Diagnosis of Autism? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- An Explorative Study of Atypical Social Interaction Styles in Adult Men with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Men with Personality Disorders and Men from the General Population.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Trial
- Increased Accuracy of Emotion Recognition in Individuals with Autism-Like Traits after Five Days of Magnetic Stimulations.Neural plasticity · 2020Trial
- Overlapping And Differentiating Clinical Features of Autism and Borderline Personality Disorder in Women and People Assigned Female at Birth: A Cross-Sectional Study.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Reduced inter-subject functional connectivity during movies in autism: replicability across cross-national fMRI datasets.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Diagnostic inflation in autism spectrum disorder: an epistemological and methodological reappraisal.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Psychometric Evaluation of Two Adult Autism Screening Tools in Brazil.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Prospective Memory Performance of Autistic Adults in Everyday Life: The Role of Stress and Motivation.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Sex differences in the prevalence of common comorbidities in autism: a narrative review.Ewha medical journal · 2025Review
- Female gender and autism: underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis - clinical and scientific urgency.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Self- and Informant Report in a First-Time Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adulthood: the Role of Females.Advances in neurodevelopmental disorders · 2024Article
- A comparison of the presentations of males and females with autism spectrum disorder and those narrowly below the diagnostic threshold.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Uncovering employment outcomes for autistic university graduates in the United Kingdom: An analysis of population data.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Experiences of Support Following Autism Diagnosis in Adulthood.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
- Barriers to an Autistic Identity: How RRBs may Contribute to the Underdiagnosis of Females.Research in autism spectrum disorders · 2023Article
- Gender bias in autism screening: measurement invariance of different model frameworks of the Autism Spectrum Quotient.BJPsych open · 2023Article
- Shining a Light on a Hidden Population: Social Functioning and Mental Health in Women Reporting Autistic Traits But Lacking Diagnosis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Article
- Comparison of an online adaptation of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 with its in-person version in an adult autism diagnostic service.BJPsych open · 2023Article
- A comparison of self-report and discrepancy measures of camouflaging: Exploring sex differences in diagnosed autistic versus high autistic trait young adults.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
It is unknown whether sex influences the diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder, or whether male and female adults within the spectrum have different symptom profiles. This study reports sex differences in clinical outcomes for 1244 adults (935 males and 309 females) referred for autism spectrum disorder assessment. Significantly, more males (72%) than females (66%) were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder of any subtype (x(2) = 4.09; p = 0.04). In high-functioning autism spectrum disorder adults (IQ > 70; N = 827), there were no significant sex differences in severity of socio-communicative domain symptoms. Males had significantly more repetitive behaviours/restricted interests than females (p = 0.001, d = 0.3). A multivariate analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between autism spectrum disorder subtype (full-autism spectrum disorder/partial-autism spectrum disorder) and sex: in full-autism spectrum disorder, males had more severe socio-communicative symptoms than females; for partial-autism spectrum disorder, the reverse was true. There were no sex differences in prevalence of co-morbid psychopathologies. Sex influenced diagnostic evaluation in a clinical sample of adults with suspected autism spectrum disorder. The sexes may present with different manifestations of the autism spectrum disorder phenotype and differences vary by diagnostic subtype. Understanding and awareness of adult female repetitive behaviours/restricted interests warrant attention and sex-specific diagnostic assessment tools may need to be considered.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.