Overall severities of gastrointestinal symptoms in pediatric outpatients with and without autism spectrum disorder.
A GI Severity Index score ≥2 spots GI disorders in kids with ASD as well as in typical kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors tested a 6-item GI Severity Index on the kids. Half had ASD, half were neurotypical.
Each child got a full GI work-up plus the quick index. The team wanted to know if the short form could flag real GI disorders.
What they found
A score of 2 or more caught 80 % of GI disorders in both groups. Specificity was 79 %.
The tool worked just as well for kids with ASD as for typical kids. Area-under-curve ranged from 0.85 to 0.97.
How this fits with other research
Némorin et al. (2025) extends this work. They added GI data to a cluster analysis and found GI issues help split ASD into four clear subtypes at diagnosis.
Hudry et al. (2021) also validated a pediatric screen, the AOSI for infants. Both papers show quick tools can work when you pick the right age range.
Rosa et al. (2016) looked at psychiatric, not GI, comorbidities. Together the studies map common co-occurring conditions you should track in ASD.
Why it matters
You now have a 2-minute GI screen that catches 4 out of 5 true cases. Use it at intake for any child with ASD. A score of 2+ earns a referral to GI. Early treatment of constipation or reflux can cut problem behavior and improve feeding. Add the score to your intake packet today.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In order to determine the effectiveness of a Gastrointestinal Severity Index to screen for gastrointestinal disorders, the Gastrointestinal Severity Index was administered to 135 children with autism spectrum disorders and 146 comparisons with and without gastrointestinal disorders. The mean Gastrointestinal Severity Index scores of the groups were 3.53 ± 1.78, 3.15 ± 1.99, 0.81 ± 1.25, and 0.29 ± 0.76 (comparative pediatric patients with gastrointestinal disorder = autism spectrum disorder + gastrointestinal disorder > autism spectrum disorder-gastrointestinal disorder > comparative pediatric patients without gastrointestinal disorder, respectively), Ps < 0.05. Receiver operating characteristic curves and areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated to ascertain which Gastrointestinal Severity Index cutoff scores yielded the highest sensitivity and specificity rates for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.97) for the comparison group was higher (P < 0.001) than the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.85) for autism spectrum disorder children indicating that the Gastrointestinal Severity Index was more effective in screening for gastrointestinal disorders in comparisons. However, the same Gastrointestinal Severity Index cutoff score of 2 and above yielded, respectively, sensitivity and specificity rates of 92% and 93% for comparisons and 80% and 79% for autism spectrum disorder children. The negative and positive predictive values based on these sensitivity and specificity rates were calculated for a range of prevalences of gastrointestinal disorders and indicated that the Gastrointestinal Severity Index may be useful for screening children with and without autism spectrum disorder for gastrointestinal symptoms.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318757564