29% Of Children With Autism Are Diagnosed By Primary Care Professionals

About 29% of children ages 1 to 5 with autism were diagnosed by a primary care professional rather than a specialist between 2017 and 2019, according to an analysis of diagnosis patterns in 29 states. Regionally, the percentage of children diagnosed in primary care ranged from a median of 20.0% in the Midwest to 36.4% in the West.

The analysis included 36,263 children across 933 county groupings in 29 states. Diagnosis patterns within each region varied widely. Primary care diagnosis rates were slightly higher in less densely populated counties, ranging from 24.2% in the most densely . . .