Brief Report: Prevalence and Severity of Auditory Sensory Over-Responsivity in Autism as Reported by Parents and Caregivers

• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-04991-0
• Publication Date: 2021-04-10T15:03:32Z
• Authors: Tana B. Carson; Matthew J. Valente; Bradley J. Wilkes; Lynne Richard
• Keywords: Adult; Parents; Adolescent; Autism Spectrum Disorder; 05 social sciences; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; Young Adult; Cross-Sectional Studies; Caregivers; Child, Preschool; Prevalence; Humans; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Autistic Disorder; Child

Auditory sensory over-responsivity (aSOR) is a frequently reported sensory feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, there is little consensus regarding its prevalence and severity. This cross-sectional study uses secondary data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R; Item 72: undue sensitivity to noise) housed in the US National Institute of Mental Health Data Archives to identify prevalence and severity of aSOR. Of the 4104 subjects with ASD ages 2-54 (M = 9, SD = 5.8) who responded to item 72, 60.1% (n = 1876) had aSOR currently (i.e., point prevalence) and 71.1% (n = 2221) reported having aSOR ever (i.e., lifetime prevalence). aSOR prevalence and severity were affected by age, but there were no associations with sex.