Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Africa: a perspective.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Africa: a perspective.
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DOI：
10.4314/ajpsy.v14i3.3
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发表时间：
2011-07
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Munir KM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bakare MO;Munir KM
大约26年前，自闭症的普遍发生受到了质疑。人们认为只有在技术高度发达的西方工业化国家才会发生这种情况。在过去十年中，有关自闭症及其流行情况的知识在世界不同地区有记录地呈上升趋势，大多数文献来自西方世界，但非洲目前关于自闭症各方面的情况仍不清楚。评估了PUBMED在过去十年中引用的关于非洲人ASD的流行病学、诊断、病因学和知识方面的文献的前景。在对过去十年发表的关于非洲人自闭症的文献进行公开搜索时，将自闭症、诊断、病因学、知识和非洲等关键词进行了不同程度的组合。没有专门针对非洲自闭症流行病学的研究。相关的两项研究中有一项涉及阿拉伯国家的自闭症流行病学，但包括两个北非国家。在来自非洲的文献中，非言语的自闭症病例比言语病例的比例更高。相关的共病疾病包括智力残疾、癫痫和眼皮肤白化病。病因假设有脑炎后感染、遗传和自身免疫因素、维生素D病因假说等。人们注意到，非洲对自闭症的了解很少。非洲需要进行流行病学研究，以确定自闭症问题的严重程度和该区域受自闭症影响的儿童的特征。这将有助于计划，并可能有助于回答令人烦恼的ASD病因学问题。需要更多地关注非洲儿童发育障碍的问题。
The universal occurrence of ASD was queried about twenty-six years ago. It was thought to occur only in western industrialized countries with high technological development. Over the last decade, knowledge about ASD and its prevalence had been documented to be on the rise in different regions of the world with most literatures coming from the western world but the present situation in Africa on aspects of ASD remained unclear. Perspectives of literatures cited in pubmed over the last decade on aspects of epidemiology, diagnosis, aetiology and knowledge about ASD among Africans were assessed. Key words like autism, diagnosis, aetiology, knowledge and Africa were variously combined in doing a pubmed search of literatures published over the last decade about ASD among Africans. No study addressed specifically epidemiology of ASD in Africa. One of the two studies that were relevant addressed epidemiology of ASD in Arab countries, though included two Northern African countries. Higher proportion of non-verbal cases of ASD compared to verbal cases was documented in literature coming from Africa. Associated co-morbid disorders included intellectual disability, epilepsy and oculo-cutaneous albinism. Aetiological factors postulated were post-encephalitic infection, genetic and auto-immune factors, vitamin D aetiological hypothesis among others. Knowledge about ASD in Africa was noted to be low. There is need for epidemiological studies in Africa to define the magnitude of the problem of ASD and characteristics of children affected by ASD in this region. This would help in planning and might be helpful in answering the bothering question of aetiology of ASD. More policy making attention need to be directed at issues of childhood developmental disorders in Africa.