The autism rate among 8-year-old children in the United States is one in 44, according to a new report. Researchers used a new method to estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children of various ages at 11 sites in 2018. The rate of one in 44 among 8-year-olds is the highest estimate to date by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network since its inception in 2000. For the study, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers analyzed information from 220,281 children, including 5,058 8-year-olds with ASD in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. Boys with ASD outnumbered girls by 4.2 to one in the study, and differences in prevalence and median age of ASD diagnosis were evident across sites. Prevalence ranged from 1.6 percent (Missouri) to …