Screening for autism in Mexico

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Psychometrics
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) require reliable screening tools for epidemiological surveys.
• The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a widely used measure for assessing ASD symptomatology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Spanish version of the SRS as a screening instrument for ASDs in Mexican school-age children.
• To assess the psychometric properties and discriminant validity of the SRS in a Mexican population.

Main Methods:

• A clinical sample of 200 children with ASDs and 363 controls were assessed using parent and teacher SRS scales.
• Analyses included three-way ANOVAs and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses.
• Internal consistency, discriminant validity, and optimal cutoffs were determined.

Main Results:

• The SRS showed significant differences between children with and without ASDs for both parent and teacher reports.
• Excellent discriminant validity was confirmed by ROC analyses (AUC > 0.96).
• Mexican typically developing children scored higher on the SRS than US/German counterparts, but clinically referred subjects were comparable.

Conclusions:

• The Spanish SRS is an acceptable and psychometrically sound screening instrument for epidemiological studies of ASDs in Mexico.
• Its performance is comparable to North American and other international samples.
• The SRS facilitates accurate detection of autistic symptomatology in diverse populations.