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Educated Parents More Likely to Have Autistic Kids
Studying 10 areas of California, researchers at UC Davis found a link between kids with autism and parents with above average levels of education. While also seeking environmental factors precluding autism, the study found none.
The study also discovered autism in children was more likely near autism treatment centers. Who knew Captain Obvious was a scientist?
In a debate that frantically seeks to demonize about anything and everything–vaccines, household toxins, certain types of infections, even microwaves and wireless computers–this study points, again, to the most likely reason we’re seeing a rise in autism: because more children are getting diagnosed who wouldn’t have years ago. Parents with higher education are more likely to have their kids checked out for the condition and they also tend to make more money to afford the doctor visits.
Remember good old Occam’s Razor? Well I hate to bring up the cliche, but in the case of autism rates rising, the simplest answer may very well be the correct one. Pin down an anti-vaccine activist as to how they think vaccines cause autism and they’ll probably give you an anecdote. “A friend of mine had their kid get a shot at 18 months and soon after the kid was autistic.” As it turns out, scheduled vaccinations and the age when autism signs start to show occur around the same time. Just spurious correlation.
Source: The Daily Green
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14 Comments
[...] Educated Parents More Likely to Have Autistic Kids [...]
2-Year-Old Found Wandering with Dad's Hash Pipe | Strollerderby commented on Jan 28 10 at 10:00 amPlumbLucky commented on Jan 21 10 at 10:59 amPerhaps the title should read “Educated Parents more likely to have an autism diagnosis for their child than less-educated parents” because that seems to be the case.
I really wish folks would remember that causation and correlation are NOT one in the same.
Tracey commented on Jan 21 10 at 11:57 amEducated parents are also likely older parents.
Laure68 commented on Jan 21 10 at 12:32 pmNice post! I am always amazed when I read something (mostly from anti-vaccine advocates) that say that the increase in autism rates has nothing to do with increased diagnoses.
The interesting thing also is that these areas with higher autism rates (with more white, educated parents) are also the areas that have lower vaccination rates. If you bring this up to someone who is anti-vaccine, they will now say that this is because of higher diagnoses, but only in this case. ugh.
Tracey, yes, there is a theory that part of the rise in autism is due to parents getting older. (I’m not sure how much actual analysis has been done.) This is plausible, since higher parental age is linked to other genetic anomalies. Again, there needs to be more testing done.
Nicole commented on Jan 21 10 at 3:46 pmLame post. Obviously, you can’t prove a negative (i.e. vaccines don’t cause autism), but this post left me angry, and not in a good way. The author simply states he is skeptical about all the theories, has some evidence about increased diagnosis correlating with social factors, and then acts like: voila! Problem solved. Tracey’s point is well taken. It’s complicated. Are you one of those who deny global warming because of a cold snap? Give me solid science, or give me silence, rather than self-righteous pseudo-science.
Cole commented on Jan 21 10 at 5:16 pmNicole, you and I agree. My point was neither the anti-vaccination folk nor any of the other detractors have any solid science to offer. I certainly didn’t call the problem “solved.” Wherever you read that (or the “self-righteousness” part)is a question even science can’t solve. I’m glad we totally agree, but you have a very strange way of showing it.
PS: of course I believe in global warming. What do you take me for, a boob?
PPS: Of course you can prove a negative. You can’t get AIDS from a handshake. There, negative proved.
Laure68 commented on Jan 21 10 at 7:33 pmCole – actually, in science you can never prove a negative. All you can say is that there is no evidence of a positive. For example, I could say I have an invisible purple dog in my garage, and you could never 100% prove me wrong. All you could say is that there is no evidence that this dog exists.
This is one big issue with the anti-vaccine groups. They say they won’t believe until someone can tell say with 100% certainly that vaccines do not cause autism. It is impossible to do this, no matter how weak the link. They view this as evidence that a link is possible, which is wrong.
Cole commented on Jan 21 10 at 7:45 pmYes, Laure68. Bertrand Russell describe the exact phenomenon you’ve mentioned with his “Celestial Teapot”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot
his aim was mainly with God and religion, but it fits well for any group without a scrap of evidence to work with.
Lisa commented on Jan 23 10 at 9:34 amLet’s talk about overdiagnosis for a moment. I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard a principal say about a middle school boy, “I think he’s a little autistic” or “He’s a little aspergery” or “He’s probably on the spectrum” because the child has either poor social skills or poor impulse control or is easily frustrated. If you have a boy under five with a language delay, they are sure to get labeled autistic… even if they have had a history of hearing loss!
There’s a sign on the highway near here which says a child is diagnosed with autism every 20 minutes. I think we are overdiagnosing our kids and I hate to think what that is doing to them.
cole gamble commented on Jan 23 10 at 4:23 pmLisa I hear you. Our daughter had constant ear aches that caused a language delay, but her pre-school director had no problem blithely throwing the “A” word out there. Two ear tubes later, Jillian’s “autism” cleared up almost immediately. I don’t know why there is all this trigger-happy autism diagnosis going around, but it’s got to stop.
Cyn-diego commented on Jan 24 10 at 4:58 pmThis commentator sure paints with a broad brush. Actually, there are plenty of scientists studying the environmental — as well as genetic — causes of autism. Yes, there has been increased, and earlier, diagnosis in recent years, but the consensus is that that is only part of the story. What the other causes are is still being figured out. Here are a couple of studies that conclude that the dramatic rise in cases can be explained only about 30% or 26% by increased/earlier diagnosis:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19234401?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=13
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19234401?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=13
NOTE that the main author of the first study is the same as the ones of the study cited here, finding an education component:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20049980?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=2
Presumably they would not agree with your sweeping generalizations from their study.
Cyn-diego commented on Jan 24 10 at 5:11 pmAnd really, considering how incredibly complex the question is (of what are the various contributing factors to the rise in autism) I find the politicized, unscientific commentary in babble very UNhelpful. Couldn’t a thoughtful doctor or researcher be recruited to do these posts? Granted, the thoughtful people try to avoid getting sucked into the media soundbite-generating machine — and that’s why we’re only hearing from the nuts on both sides of the issue. But this is an extremely important problem — both because of the number of kids with autism, AND because of the danger posed by parents who are avoiding many worthwhile vaccines altogether. Remember, parents on BOTH sides of the issue are just trying to protect their kids’ health as best they can with limited information. And unfortunately, the nature of the debate has precluded most people from taking a sensible middle ground (eg, like that advocated in the Sears book). BTW, Mr. Gamble, “preclude” means to prevent. Not sure that’s what you meant in your post.
BobW commented on Apr 30 10 at 3:21 pmI have this notion that we’re breeding for Autism. My son’s personality is much like mine, only exaggerated to the Nth degree. Both his mother and I are studious loners.
On the AGW front, I believe in GW, but not AGW. The climate is obviously warmer than 1776, when the Hudson river regularly froze over in winter hard enough to drag cannon across. AGW advocates remind me of a story the Sufis tell about Nasruddin. It seems his neighbor found him daubing flour paste on the walls of his house. “Why are you doing that?” “To keep the lions away.” “But there *are* no lions in Baghdad!” “See?”
smallstar commented on Sep 12 10 at 8:14 pmComments Anybody with an autistic child will tell you, Autism is not all about education. THESE KIDS ARE PHYSICALLY SICK they have very low vitamin D, Ultra high cholesterol, hormones out of balance and multiple nutritinal deficiencies amongst their issues. It’s these symptoms that create the issues that they have with anxiety etc. Autism is NOT over-dignosed, if anything it’s underdiagnosed because there are many children with minor symptoms like speech issues who do not qualify as ‘autistic’ (it’s still diagnosed as an eductional issue rather than medical) yet if you look at their labs, thats another story. You have to wonder how and why the rates of autism shot up in-line with the vaccination schedule. We are injecting multiple toxins into our small children as well as monkey kidney cells and parts of aborted fetus cells amongst other things. Our cancer rates have soared as well as childhood diabetes and allergies. You cannot say that cancer, diabetes and allergies are better dignosed as those have very obvious symptoms. The fact is that the vaccine schedule is too heavy now and big pharmas are making big bucks out of our children being sick. Oh and BTW the whole herd immunity thing is total bollocks. Think about it….. Vaccines last 4-10yrs max, boosters last 2 years max. When was the last time you as an adult had a vaccine against anything? Most of America are walking around with no immunity. We should ALL be sick with communicable disease but we’re not. Read the national vaccine information website and also Dr Tenpenny, they will tell you the real state of vaccines in our country.
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