Season 11 · Episode 894

894 - Is There an Autism Epidemic?

Public Health On Call · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

May 15, 202512m 53s

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Show Notes

About this episode:

Diagnoses of autism are on the rise, but is this the result of more children being affected by the condition, or is more of a consequence of broader criteria and more screening? In this episode: a look at a new study about the number of children diagnosed with autism and what this research shows—and doesn't show.

Guest:

Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta is an autism researcher and vice-director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. She is the lead Maryland investigator on a national study about the rate of autism.

Host:

Dr. Josh Sharfstein is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty member in health policy, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.

Show links and related content:

Prevalence and Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 4 and 8 Years - Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 16 Sites, United States 2022—CDC's MMWR
RFK Jr.'s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans—CBS News
The NIH-Funded Autism Study Hoping to Pinpoint Gene-Environmental Interplay—Public Health On Call (March 2025)
Vaccines Don't Cause Autism. Why Do Some People Think They Do?—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health
Discovering How Environment Affects Autism—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine (2023)

Transcript information:

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