Assessment of Severity of Autism Using the Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism

BACKGROUND: The Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) was developed to assess the severity of autism among Indian cases. AIMS: The present study evaluated the ISAA in relation to the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Developmental Disability- Children Global Assessment Scale (DD-CGAS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Indian children with ICD 10 diagnoses of Autistic disorder (AD, n = 50), Intellectual Disability (ID, n = 50), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, n = 26), other psychiatric disorders (PD-N=25) and control children without psychiatric disorders (n = 65) were evaluated using the ISAA, DD-CGAS and the CARS (total n = 216). STATISTICAL ANALYSES: In addition to descriptive statistics and correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess whether the ISAA scores were significantly different across diagnostic groups. RESULTS: Total ISAA scores were significantly higher among children diagnosed with autistic disorder compared to four other diagnostic groups. Total ISAA scores were significantly correlated with CARS scores and DD-CGAS scores. Groups sub-divided on the basis of recommended ISAA cutoff points of severity showed significant differences in CARS scores. CONCLUSION: The ISAA can thus be used to assess severity of AD among Indian children.