Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in Ecuador: a pilot study in Quito

Abstract

This research presents the results of the first phase of the study on the prevalence of pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in regular education in Quito, Ecuador. One-hundred-and-sixty-one regular schools in Quito were selected with a total of 51,453 pupils. Prevalence of ASD was assessed by an interview with the rector of the school or its delegate. Results show an extremely low prevalence of 0.11 % of pupils with any ASD diagnosis; another 0.21 % were suspected to have ASD, but were without a diagnosis. This low prevalence suggests that children and adolescents with ASD are not included in regular education in Quito. These results are discussed in the light of low diagnostic identification of ASD and low inclusion tolerance.