Investigating the utility of the AQ-10 in children and adolescents assessed in an outpatient ARFID clinic.
AQ-10 ≥6 spots most autistic kids in ARFID clinics while rarely flagging typical kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the 10-item Autism Quotient (AQ-10) to the kids in an outpatient ARFID clinic.
They already knew which kids had an autism diagnosis and which did not.
They wanted to see if a quick score of 6 or higher could flag autism without long testing.
What they found
A score of 6 or higher caught 80 % of the kids who already had autism.
Only 6.5 % of the non-autistic kids scored that high.
The short form worked as well in the feeding clinic as it does in general autism screens.
How this fits with other research
Posserud et al. (2013) also found a 7-item teen self-report, ASSERT, gave strong autism flags.
Both studies show brief checklists can save time in busy clinics.
Pierce et al. (1994) took a different path: they used food texture probes, not autism scores, to sort feeding problems.
The 1994 paper reminds us to still watch for texture refusal even after the AQ-10 says “likely autism.”
Why it matters
You can add the AQ-10 to your intake packet today. A score of 6 or higher is your red flag to refer for full autism evaluation. This one-minute screen cuts wait time and lets you start feeding treatment with the right diagnosis in mind.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The high co-occurrence of autism and eating disorders is well established, including for those with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). It is therefore important to consider autism and identify possible autism when people present to eating disorder services to ascertain whether further assessment is indicated, to support clinical formulation and to make appropriate adaptations during interventions. This paper explores the utility of a validated autism screening measure, the AQ-10, in a population of children and adolescents who presented to an outpatient eating disorders clinic for an assessment of possible ARFID. Over 19 months, 335 young people were assessed and 246 families with children aged between 4 and 17 years completed one of three versions of the AQ-10 (Child, Adolescent, and Adult), as part of a battery of routinely administered pre-assessment questionnaires. Results indicated that 80.2% (n = 69) of those with an existing autism diagnosis scored above clinical threshold of ≥6 (M = 7.2, SD = 1.9), 43.9% (n = 43) of those queried to be autistic scored above clinical threshold (M = 5.2, SD = 2.5), and 6.5% (n = 4) of non-autistic individuals scored above clinical threshold (M = 2.8, SD = 1.8). Additionally, the AQ-10 satisfactorily discriminated between those with a known autism diagnosis and those who are not autistic across all age groups and sex. We conclude that the AQ-10, alongside a comprehensive clinical assessment and clinical judgment, is a useful screening tool that can support clinicians to identify appropriate onward referrals for autism assessments, aid clinical formulation, and consider appropriate adaptations and reasonable adjustments during ARFID interventions.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3220