UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Selection bias on intellectual ability in autism research: a cross-sectional review and meta-analysis

Russell, G; Mandy, W; Elliott, D; White, R; Pittwood, T; Ford, T; (2019) Selection bias on intellectual ability in autism research: a cross-sectional review and meta-analysis. Molecular Autism , 10 , Article 9. 10.1186/s13229-019-0260-x. Green open access

[thumbnail of Russell_13229-019-0260-x.pdf]
Preview
Text
Russell_13229-019-0260-x.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Current global estimates suggest the proportion of the population with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have intellectual disability (ID) is approximately 50%. Our objective was to ascertain the existence of selection bias due to under-inclusion of populations with ID across all fields of autism research. A sub-goal was to evaluate inconsistencies in reporting of findings. Methods: This review covers all original research published in 2016 in autism-specific journals with an impact factor greater than 3. Across 301 included studies, 100,245 participants had ASD. A random effects meta-analysis was used to estimate the proportion of participants without ID. Selection bias was defined as where more than 75% of participants did not have ID. Results: Meta-analysis estimated 94% of all participants identified as being on the autism spectrum in the studies reviewed did not have ID (95% CI 0.91–0.97). Eight out of ten studies demonstrated selection bias against participants with ID. The reporting of participant characteristics was generally poor: information about participants’ intellectual ability was absent in 38% of studies (n = 114). Where there was selection bias on ID, only 31% of studies mentioned lack of generalisability as a limitation. Conclusions: We found selection bias against ID throughout all fields of autism research. We recommend transparent reporting about ID and strategies for inclusion for this much marginalised group

Type: Article
Title: Selection bias on intellectual ability in autism research: a cross-sectional review and meta-analysis
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s13229-019-0260-x
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-019-0260-x
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Keywords: Selection bias, Autism, Intellectual disability, Autism spectrum disorder, Nosology
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10071129
Downloads since deposit
113Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item