Correlation between Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) and Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) in the evaluation of autism spectrum disorder

Identification of health issues in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is paramount to provide appropriate care and interventions. The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) is the one of the few current measures that assesses ASD-associated health problems thus informing intervention decisions. However, little research has been conducted to compare ATEC with other more recognized measures such as the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). It is unclear whether these two scales can be used interchangeably or whether high scores on one scale are comparable to the other. The aim of the current study was to compare the correlation between ATEC and CARS in the evaluation of children with ASD. This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics Outpatient Clinic at King Saud University, King Khalid University hospital (KKUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Forty children with a prior diagnosis of ASD seen during the period from October 2014 to August 2015 were included. Each child was assessed using ATEC and CARS independently during the same visit. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient test was used. The overall mean CARS score was 34.125 ± 5.535 (range from 22 to 42) and the mean ATEC score was 40.95± 9.1934.1 (range from 24 to 72). The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rs) was 0.015, and p-value was 0.926 (> 0.05) meaning that there was no correlation between CARS and ATEC scales. No correlation between CARS and ATEC scale was found. ATEC should not be used instead of CARS to delineate co-morbid health issues. Future studies are needed to assess the validity of ATEC and its correlation with other well established scales.