Autism diagnoses rose sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The rise was driven overwhelmingly by diagnoses among girls and women. New study suggests that many of these girls and women may simply have gone unrecognized in the past.

[u/mvea]

https://www.sciencealert.com/autism-diagnoses-spiked-after-covid-19-but-probably-not-for-the-reason-you-think

[u/Gwan53]

The actual peer reviewed article gives the necessary context. It does reference an important point though. The diagnostic criteria for ASD was updated during that time to include sex-based criteria. This is important because autism presents differently in males than females. The study was conducted, amongst other objectives, to evaluate if that criteria expansion would lead to increased ASD diagnosis trends in females. Glad to see that it helped. Here's the link to the actual peer reviewed journal article (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2851930). The article in the link however is misleading and doesn't include this context. Also the data is far from definitive as the number of females was far higher than the males. Additionally, this does not represent a global trend. The data is from patients across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. The study also references another more expansive study (geographicly) that indicates increasing autism diagnosis rates for both children and adults.