ArticleGlobal mental health (Cambridge, England)2017
Pattern of impairments and late diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among a sub-Saharan African clinical population of children in Nigeria.
Article in Global mental health (Cambridge, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Delayed Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adolescent Boys.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Pooled it
- Predictors of an earlier diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review (1987-2017).European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Cultural and Contextual Factors on Autism Across the Globe.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2020Pooled it
- Educators' knowledge of and perceptions towards students with autism in Nigeria.International journal of developmental disabilities · 2026Article
- Pathways and delays in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in Kenya: a cross-sectional study from tertiary hospitals in Nairobi.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Knowledge mediates attitude in autism spectrum disorders? Data from Malaysia.International journal of developmental disabilities · 2023Article
- Factors affecting knowledge of autism spectrum disorder among pediatric residents in eastern China: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnoses: A Comparison of Countries with Different Income Levels.Clinical epidemiology · 2022Review
- Sex differences in age of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder: Preliminary evidence from Uganda.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2022Article
- Autism Spectrum Disorders in Nigeria: A Scoping Review of Literature and Opinion on Future Research and Social Policy Directions.Journal of health care for the poor and underserved · 2019Article
- [Age of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in children and factors influencing the age of diagnosis].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2018Article
- Childhood autism spectrum disorder: insights from a tertiary hospital cohort in Kenya.African journal of health sciencesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex group of neurodevelopmental disorders. Studies conducted among Africans living outside the continent indicate that African children are more likely than Caucasian children to have a late diagnosis of ASD. There is a dearth of information on this topic among children with ASD living in Africa.
methodsTo determine the pattern of impairments and age at diagnosis in ASD, sixty Nigerian children with a diagnosis of ASD were recruited from a neurodevelopmental clinic. DSM-V criteria were used to make a diagnosis of ASD, while a symptom checklist for ASD was used to determine the pattern of impairments in ASD.
resultsAges of the children ranged from 2 to 17 years with a mean age of 9.45 ± 4.33 years with the majority of them (75%) being 12 years or younger. All the children (100%) with ASD exhibited poor eye contact, difficulty in mixing with other children and inability to consistently respond to his/her name. More than a half of them (55%) lack verbal communication. Impairments that were uncommon are in the areas of object attachment (20.0%), odd postures (26.7%) and inappropriate facial expression (30.0%). Mean age at the observation of ASD features was 17.0 ± 6.7 months. Mean age at diagnosis of ASD was 9.00 ± 4.30 years. The mean time lag from a parental concern of ASD features to seeking specialist care was 85 months and to diagnosis was 91 months.
conclusionsCore symptoms/impairments of ASD are present in Nigerian children but a late diagnosis is common.
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