Standardizing ADOS scores for a measure of severity in autism spectrum disorders

Katherine Gotham, Andrew Pickles, Catherine Lord

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1284 Scopus citations

Abstract

The aim of this study is to standardize Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores within a large sample to approximate an autism severity metric. Using a dataset of 1,415 individuals aged 2-16 years with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or nonspectrum diagnoses, a subset of 1,807 assessments from 1,118 individuals with ASD were divided into narrow age and language cells. Within each cell, severity scores were based on percentiles of raw totals corresponding to each ADOS diagnostic classification. Calibrated severity scores had more uniform distributions across developmental groups and were less influenced by participant demographics than raw totals. This metric should be useful in comparing assessments across modules and time, and identifying trajectories of autism severity for clinical, genetic, and neurobiological research.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)693-705
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume39
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2009
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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