最新调查显示美国有30万儿童患上孤独症

    美国最近进行的一项有关孤独症的全国性调查显示，有30万名儿童被诊断患上了孤独症。这意味着，每1000名美国学龄儿童中，约有5.5人患孤独症。

    据合众社日前援引《华盛顿邮报》的报道说，美国疾病控制中心于5月初公布的这一调查结果显示，患病儿童之间存在着一个较为明显的性别差异，那就是男孩较之女孩更容易患上孤独症，男孩患孤独症的几率是女孩的4倍。

    从统计出来的数据来看，富裕的白人家庭的孩子孤独症发病率最高。但研究人员对此指出，这个结果可能反映出生活在富裕白人家庭中的孩子更容易得到医疗救护，但它并不能说明儿童孤独症实际的发病情况。

    报道说，儿童孤独症又称自闭症，是一种广泛性发育障碍。患有孤独症的儿童很难与其他人交流，往往会表现出社会交往障碍、言语表达障碍、兴趣范围狭窄等多种症状。

    That means about 5.5 out of every 1,000 school-age children have been diagnosed with autism.

    Past estimates have ranged from 1 to 9 out of every 1,000 children, based on smaller studies in individual states or cities.

    The government-run study released Thursday reports findings from national surveys of tens of thousands of families.

    The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found boys are nearly four times more likely than girls to be identified with the condition. And it found Hispanics had lower autism rates, though it's possible that may be related to health-care access problems.

    The study does not attempt to answer whether autism is increasing -- a topic, driven in part by a debate over whether autism is linked to a vaccine preservative. The new research is being published this week in the CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.