DAS‐IICognitive Profiles Are Not Diagnostically Meaningful For Autism: AROCAnalysis

Abstract

Intelligence assessment is an integral part of a comprehensive autism evaluation. Many past studies have described a cognitive profile of autistic individuals characterized by higher nonverbal than verbal IQ scores. The diagnostic utility of this profile, however, remains unknown. We leveraged receiver operating characteristic methods to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) of three different IQ profiles in a large sample of children who have an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (N = 1,228, Simons Simplex Collection) who completed the Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition (DAS-II), School Age compared to the normative sample provided by the DAS-II publisher (N = 2,200). The frequently discussed nonverbal > verbal IQ profile performed near chance at distinguishing ASD from normative individuals (AUC: 0.54, 95% CI [0.52-0.56]), and performed significantly worse for females than males (AUC: females: 0.46 [0.41-0.52]; males: 0.55 [0.53-0.58]). All cognitive profiles showed AUC < 0.56. We conclude that while significant differences between verbal and nonverbal IQ scores exist at the group level, these differences are small in an absolute sense and not meaningful at an individual level. We do not recommend using cognitive profiles to aid in autism diagnostic decision-making.

Point-of-care test system for detection of immunoglobulin-G and -M against nucleocapsid protein and spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2

“…The matrix effect is inevitable. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and Youden index calculation were performed to determine the optimal cutoff value of the POCT system for anti-N IgG/IgM and anti-S-RBD IgG/IgM detection; these methods have been widely used across many disciplines [ 27 ]. A total of 196 of human serum samples (145 negative and 51 positive) were detected by the developed POCT system.…”

Agreement of parent‐reported cognitive level with standardized measures among children with autism spectrum disorder

“…It is worth noting that, within these analyses, we did not conceptualize the standardized measure score as the “accurate” depiction of the child's cognitive functioning. Direct cognitive testing provides measures of specific cognitive components and has been shown to be valid (Clements et al, 2020; Stephenson et al, 2021) and to be able to predict various outcomes over time for autistic individuals (Pickles et al, 2020). However, its ecological validity as a predictor of everyday functioning has been a focus of concern because such testing is conducted within a highly structured environment that can deviate significantly from everyday life (Pickles et al, 2020; Simonoff et al, 2020).…”