SynthesisJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2020
Research Review: Outcomes of 24- to 36-month-old children with autism spectrum disorder vary by ascertainment strategy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Randomized, Community-Based Feasibility Trial of Modified ESDM for Toddlers with Suspected Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2022Trial
- Distinct Temporal Stages of Infant Brain Processing Associate With Early Versus Later Autism Diagnosis.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Mitigating Sex-Related Biases to Elucidate the Autism Phenotype.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Heterogeneity of autism symptoms in community-referred infants and toddlers at elevated or low familial likelihood of autism.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Article
- Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy of the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised With Preschool Tool for Early Autism Detection in Very Young Children.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Early social communication development in infants with autism spectrum disorder.Child development · 2021Article
- The Early Screening for Autism and Communication Disorders: Field-testing an autism-specific screening tool for children 12 to 36 months of age.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2021Article
- Towards a Data-Driven Approach to Screen for Autism Risk at 12 Months of Age.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2021Article
- Early Observation of Red Flags in 12-Month-Old Infant Siblings Later Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder.American journal of speech-language pathology · 2021Observational
- Prenatal exposure to metals and autism spectrum disorder: Current status and future directions.Current opinion in toxicology · 2021Article
- Association of Child and Family Attributes With Outcomes in Children With Autism.JAMA network open · 2021Article
- Affording autism an early brain development re-definition.Development and psychopathology · 2020Review
- Factors associated with enrollment into a clinical trial of caregiver-implemented intervention for infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2020Article
- The development of the social brain in baby siblings of children with autism.Current opinion in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Moving Toward Telehealth Surveillance Services for Toddlers at Risk for Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite widespread recommendations for early surveillance of risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), no research to date has shown that early surveillance leads to better clinical outcomes. Preliminary research has suggested that children with ASD ascertained via prospective follow-up have better outcomes than those ascertained via community referral. Because prospective studies include early surveillance, by comparing outcomes of children with ASD across ascertainment strategies, we may gain insight into the effects of early surveillance relative to its absence.
methodsA systematic review was conducted to identify studies reporting outcomes of 24- to 36-month-olds with ASD ascertained via prospective follow-up, community referral, or universal screening. A meta-analysis using a random effects model was used to calculate overall effect size estimates for developmental level and symptom severity across ascertainment cohorts.
resultsEleven prospective, ten community referral, and eight universal screening studies were identified, reporting on 1,658 toddlers with ASD. We found no differences in outcomes between community referral and universal screening studies. Relative to both, prospective studies reported significantly higher developmental levels and lower symptom severities.
conclusionsOutcomes of young children with ASD ascertained via prospective follow-up are better than those of children with ASD recruited via community referral or universal screening. Although we discuss why sampling bias is not likely the driving force behind these findings, we cannot rule out the possibility that sampling bias contributes to the observed differences; future studies should probe the effects of sociodemographic variables on clinical outcomes as a function of ascertainment strategy. This limitation notwithstanding, our results raise the possibility that prospective follow-up may confer a 'surveillance effect' that contributes to improved developmental and diagnostic outcomes in children with ASD. Future research should test this hypothesis and determine the specific mechanism by which surveillance may improve outcomes.
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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.