Disparity in report of autism-related behaviors by social demographic characteristics: Findings from a community-based study in Taiwan.
Use an SCQ cut-point of 11 in Taiwanese community clinics, and remember boys and low-income kids may score a bit higher even without autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Social Communication Questionnaire to parents in Taiwan. They looked at how family income, mom’s schooling, race, and child sex changed the scores.
They wanted the best cut-point to flag possible autism in regular community clinics, not just hospitals.
What they found
A score of 11 worked best to separate kids later diagnosed with autism from those who were not.
Boys, lower-income families, and moms with less school scored a little higher even when autism was absent.
How this fits with other research
Barnard-Brak et al. (2015) also saw that poorer, less-educated families are harder to reach after screening. Their M-CHAT study shows the same social gap, but they tracked follow-up visits instead of score bias.
Jones et al. (2007) found the same 11-point cut works well for high-risk preschoolers in hospitals. The new study says the number still holds in everyday Taiwanese clinics, widening the evidence base.
Barnard-Brak et al. (2016) warned that SCQ accuracy drops in some age bands, which sounds like a clash. The difference is setting: the 2016 paper mixed many sites and ages, while Peng-Chou stayed in one uniform community sample, so their positive finding is more specific to Taiwan.
Why it matters
If you screen with the SCQ in Taiwan, set your flag at 11 and expect slightly elevated scores for boys and low-income kids. Do not over-refer these groups; just note the bias. Share this number with pediatricians and preschool teachers so everyone uses the same line, reducing false alarms.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: This study examined the effect of demographic factors on Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) scores in children aged 30-68 months. Diagnoses of ASD were made after a gold standard evaluation that included the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), and the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R). The relationship of demographic variables to SCQ scores was compared in two source populations: (a) children recruited from clinical and educational sources serving children who have ASD or other developmental disorders (CE) and (b) children recruited from birth certificates to represent the general population (BC). The impact of the demographic variables-child sex, child age, maternal language, maternal ethnicity, maternal education, maternal race, and household income-on total SCQ score were studied to examine their impact on the SCQ's performance. Demographic factors predicting the SCQ total score were used to generate ROCs. Factors that had a significant influence on SCQ performance were identified by examining the area under the ROCs. Optimal SCQ cut-points were generated for significant factors using the Youden's Index. Overall male sex, lower household income, lower maternal education and Black race predicted higher SCQ scores. In this sample, the most common optimum value for the SCQ cut-point across the different sociodemographic groups was 11. Autism Res 2018, 11: 695-706. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Screeners are used to help identify children who are more likely to have ASD than their peers. Ideally screeners should be accurate for different groups of children and families. This study examined how well the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) predicts ASD. We found that male sex, lower household income, lower maternal education and Black race were associated with higher SCQ scores. In this study an SCQ cut-point of 11 worked best across the different sociodemographic groups in our sample.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2017 · doi:10.1177/1362361316677024