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LETTER TO EDITOR |
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Year : 2020 | Volume
: 5
| Issue : 2 | Page : 236 |
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Sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with autism spectrum disorders: An observational study from a tertiary care hospital
Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi
Department of Paediatrics, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
Date of Submission | 18-Jan-2020 |
Date of Decision | 13-May-2020 |
Date of Acceptance | 20-May-2020 |
Date of Web Publication | 18-Dec-2020 |
Correspondence Address: Prof. Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi P.O. Box 55302, Baghdad Post Office, Baghdad Iraq
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/bjhs.bjhs_2_20
How to cite this article: Al-Mendalawi MD. Sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with autism spectrum disorders: An observational study from a tertiary care hospital. BLDE Univ J Health Sci 2020;5:236 |
How to cite this URL: Al-Mendalawi MD. Sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with autism spectrum disorders: An observational study from a tertiary care hospital. BLDE Univ J Health Sci [serial online] 2020 [cited 2021 Jan 19];5:236. Available from: https://www.bldeujournalhs.in/text.asp?2020/5/2/236/303961 |
Sir,
It is my pleasure to comment on the interesting study by Bhat et al.[1] published in July–December 2019 issue of the BLDE University Journal of Health Sciences. On employing the 4th Edition and 5th Edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as well as Text Revision, Bhat et al.[1] found that 10.4% of the Indian pediatric cohort with psychiatric disorders had autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Apart from few study limitations mentioned by Bhat et al.,[1] I assume that the following limitation might drop additional suspicions on the correctness of the study findings. It is explicit that there are numerous scales to early identify and assess ASDs. To avoid bias in the early detection of ASDs in the clinical settings and health institutions, various population-specific ASD scales have been formulated with good sensitivity and specificity.[2],[3],[4] Interestingly, India has already developed its own scale for ASD identification with a high diagnostic precision, namely hit rate (0.89), sensitivity (0.88), and specificity (0.90).[5] I wonder why Bhat et al.[1] did not use in the study methodology the Indian Version of ASD Scale. I presume that using national ASD scale could generate more accurate study results.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References | |  |
1. | Bhat BA, Hussain A, Qadir W, Dar SA. Sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with autism spectrum disorders – An observational study from a tertiary care hospital. BLDE Univ J Health Sci 2019;4:72-7. [Full text] |
2. | Samadi SA, McConkey R. The utility of the Gilliam autism rating scale for identifying Iranian children with autism. Disabil Rehabil 2014;36:452-6. |
3. | Incekas Gassaloglu S, Baykara B, Avcil S, Demiral Y. Validity and reliability analysis of Turkish version of childhood autism rating scale. Turk Psikiyatri Derg 2016;27:266-74. |
4. | Guo C, Luo M, Wang X, Huang S, Meng Z, Shao J, et al. Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of m?odified checklist for autism in toddlers, revised, with follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). J Autism Dev Disord 2019;49:185-96. |
5. | Kishore MT, Menon DK, Binukumar B. Development of a scale for identifying autism spectrum disorder during early childhood. Indian J Psychiatry 2018;60:438-44.  [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
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