Recent research reveals a sharper increase in autism diagnoses among girls and women since 2020, emphasizing the need for improved screening and awareness of subtler symptoms in females.
New research suggests autism spectrum disorder diagnoses have risen more sharply among females than males since 2020, adding to evidence that girls and women with autism are still being identified later and less consistently than boys.
In a study published in JAMA Network Open on July 22, Erick Messias of Saint Louis University and colleagues analysed electronic health records from 171,134 people seen annually in a large health system between 2016 and 2024. The team found that females were diagnosed, on average, 3.4 years later than males, at ages 15.7 and 12.3 respectively.
The study found that male diagnosis rates were flat or falling over the period studied, while female diagnosis rates climbed after 2020. Among females, the annual percentage change in autism incidence was 19.0 per cent overall after the pandemic began, compared with no similar rise among males.
The pattern was visible across age groups. In children aged 0 to 9, diagnoses declined among boys but increased among girls after 2020. Among adolescents, diagnosis rates for boys fell sharply earlier in the study period before levelling off, while rates for girls rose significantly from 2020 through 2024. In adults, diagnosis rates for men trended down, while the increase among women was positive but not statistically significant.
Researchers said the findings point to a need for broader screening and greater awareness of how autism may present in females, especially because many girls and women may show subtler symptoms or be diagnosed only later in life. They also argued that diagnostic services should extend beyond early childhood into adolescence and adulthood.
The new analysis fits with earlier federal data showing autism diagnoses have continued to rise in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2023 that prevalence among 8-year-olds increased by 22.8 per cent from 2020 to 2022, with boys still diagnosed far more often than girls. A separate CDC report found no significant change in diagnosed autism among children aged 3 to 17 between 2019 and 2021, suggesting the broader upward trend has not been uniform across all ages or time periods.
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