The article incorrectly attributed to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) a rise in spending on autism from $22 million to $108 million in the past decade. The funding came from the NIMH's parent agency, the National Institutes of Health.
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Spike in Disease Doesn't Always Mean an Epidemic
Better Counting
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The methods scientists use to count also affect measures of incidence.
If, for example, you count the number of cases of a disease by examining insurance records, you miss those who do not have insurance (more than 40 million Americans). If you count cases through health-care providers, you miss those who did not seek treatment. If those people are minorities, immigrants and others for whom there are disparities in access to care, the prevalence of the disease will appear lower in those populations.
One reason for the higher rates of many diseases is that researchers are being more thorough in their methods, and many of the records they analyze are computerized and better organized.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently searched medical and educational records and found that the proportion of children with autism was more than three times higher in New Jersey than in Alabama. The most likely explanation for the disparity is that Alabama lags behind New Jersey in providing medical and educational services for autism. Without services, many autistic people in Alabama could not be counted because there was no sign of them in the records the CDC analyzed.
When the numbers were released in early 2007, New Jersey newspapers were filled with articles about the "epidemic," but the statistics could just as well be interpreted as confirmation of how much New Jersey is doing for autistic children.
Despite all the tragedies we read about in the news, our world is actually safer than it has ever been. Yet we live in dread of epidemics and anxiously await the release of the latest figures from the country's health-care leaders.
Ironically, many of our fears are the result of the knowledge generated by the many real advances in medicine. So the next time you see statistics documenting the increase of a disease, take at least a moment to consider whether they may be evidence not of harm, but of good. ¿
Roy Richard Grinker is professor of anthropology and the human sciences at George Washington University.
