Scientific American Features CDC Study Involving ICI

Scientific American  has featured a multi-state study in which ICI participated that revealed that childhood autism rates in the Twin Cities are higher than the national average. Conducted by the Institute's Minnesota-Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (MN-ADDM), the study identified 1 in 42 children (2.4 percent) as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Minnesota. This is higher than the autism prevalence rate of 1 in 59 (1.7 percent) detected among children in 11 communities around the country where prevalence was tracked by the Autism and Developmental Disability Monitoring Network  (ADDM). Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the ADDM Network is a nationwide network of childhood autism studies and this is the first time Minnesota has been involved with it.

In addition to discussing the study's overall findings, Scientific American noted that the higher prevalence of autism observed in Minnesota was probably because of small sampling areas clustered near a diagnostic center.