This US-based study sought to determine the association between race/ethnicity and documented autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in a cohort of 2568 children aged 8 years who were identified as meeting surveillance criteria for ASD through abstraction of evaluation records from multiple sources. Fifty-eight percent of children had a documented autism spectrum disorder. Analyses adjusted for gender, IQ, birthweight, and maternal education revealed that children who were Black (OR, 0.79), Hispanic (OR, 0.76), or of other race/ethnicity (OR, 0.65) were less likely than were White children to have a documented ASD. This disparity persisted for Black children, regardless of IQ, and was concentrated for children of other ethnicities when IQ was <70.
