Autism News & Updates: Study Says 1% of Irish Population Have Neurodevelopmental Disorder

A new research funded by charity organization Irish Autism Action has found that 1 percent of overall Irish population has autism. This is the first-ever charity-funded research in Ireland focusing on the autism population percentage of the country, which they aimed to publish to coincide with World Autism Day. 

According to the research posted by Irish Examiner page, the figure may reach to 50,000 Irish people diagnosed with autism. The statistics recorded are almost the same with the U.S. and the U.K. The prevalence study of autism was conducted in Dublin City University and was led by Dr. Mary Rose Sweeney and Professor Anthony Staines, both from the University's School of Nursing and Human Sciences. 

The researchers have screened over 9000 students coming from different mainstream and SPED schools in Dublin. The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) screening questionnaires were given to the parents of students coming from the schools in the city of Galway, Cork and Waterford where they diagnosed a total of 63 students with autism which counts to 1 percent prevalence in the sample population.

Isolating the results that came from SPED schools, they found a total of 36 children with autism. As posted by DCU page, one of the lead researchers, Dr. Sweeney said, "The results are very important because now the trends can be monitored to see if and how the rates change over time." She added, "Governments can allocate appropriate funds to care for our children's educational and social needs."

Dr. Sweeney suggested that since the study has established a standard method, it can be used across Europe to study the prevalence of autism in the population. She also explained that making a comparison to different study results about autism is difficult. This is because the researchers in previous studies were all using their own method but if they agreed to use a standardized way for this kind of research, it would be easier to compare the data.