Epidemiology of Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits in the US among Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Several reports suggest children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to be seen for injury-related ED visits; however, no nationally representative study has examined this question. Using data from the 2008 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, over a quarter of all visits among those with ASD were related to injury. In the multivariate analyses, the odds of an injury-related visit was 54% greater among those with ASD compared to youth with intellectual disability (ID), but 48% less compared to youth without ID or ASD. Compared to all other pediatric injury-visits in the US, visits among children with ASD were more likely to be due to self-inflicted injury and poisoning and were more likely to result in hospitalization (all p < 0.001).