ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
Early screening of childhood ASD at primary care hospitals in western China: a multi-center study in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence is increasing rapidly, the screening efficacy of ASD at primary care hospital directly affects diagnostic efficacy. Currently, early ASD screening capacity in western China are limited. In this study we assessed the efficacies of four different ASD screening methods at primary care hospital in Chengdu. Methods: We recruited children 18-48 months through 20 primary care hospitals in Chengdu. Warning sign checklist [including autism warning sign (AWS) and social behavior observation (SB)], the Chinese-validated version of the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT23), and autism behavior checklist (ABC) were utilized to identify potential ASD cases. Confirmation diagnosis was conducted at tertiary hospitals. Multivariate linear regression were conducted to compare efficacies of screening methods and to identify factors for positive ASD diagnosis. Results: In this real-world study, a total of 14,298 children attended the early ASD screening from 20 primary care hospitals in Chengdu. 13,458 (94.1%) children provided sufficient information and 3,502 (26.0%) children were concurrently screened with four ASD screening tools. The screen-positive rates varied across tools, in descending order, was AWS (3.1%), SB (2.7%), CHAT-23 (2.18%), and the ABC (1%). The overall referral rate reached 66.88%. Among the screened population who completed diagnostic follow-up, the detected prevalence of ASD was 0.79%. Regarding screening accuracy, the positive predictive values (PPV) were ABC (94.57%), SB (91.95%), and AWS (87.06%), CHAT-23 (84.72%) from highest to lowest. The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed factors associated with a final ASD diagnosis, adjusted for age, gender, and primary hospital. The ABC demonstrated the strongest independent association with ASD diagnosis ( Conclusion: In summary, the ABC score and child's age emerged as the most robust indicators of ASD in primary care hospitals. The effects of AWS and CHAT-23 support their utility as components in a multi-tool screening cascade. These findings support the practical value of integrated, tiered screening strategies in real-world public health settings.
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.