Siblings of autistic children have a 20% chance of being autistic themselves -; about seven times higher than the rate in infants with no autistic siblings. That's the key finding of a new paper by UC Davis MIND Institute researcher Sally Ozonoff and the Baby Siblings Research Consortium. The consortium is a collection of more than 20 research groups at universities worldwide.

Ozonoff is a distinguished professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She has studied the recurrence of autism in families for decades. The new study is based on a large, diverse group of families at research sites across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

It confirms the same research group's 2011 findings about the likelihood of autism in siblings. The new research was published this week in Pediatrics . The rate of autism diagnosis in the general community has been steadily increasing since our previous paper was published.

" Sally Ozonoff, UC Davis MIND Institute researcher The latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 1 in 36 children has autism. In 2011, the estimate was 1 in 68. Ozonoff noted that there have also been changes in autism diagnostic criteria over the past decade.

In addition, there is a growing awareness of autism in girls. "So, it was important to understand if these had any impact on the likelihood of autism recurrence within a family," she said. The 2011 paper found a recurrence rate of 18.

7%, while.