Content Analysis of Abstracts Published in Autism Journals in 2021: The year in Review.
Haris Memisevic, Amina Djipa
PMID 36125664WHAT IT FOUND
Mental health was the most common autism research topic in 2021, with 221 articles.
Social communication and social skills followed. This maps abstract counts, not treatment effects.
Key findings
01Mental health was the most common research topic, with 221 articles.
02The participant term 'Children' appeared 1908 times.
03The USA had the largest corresponding-author share, with 490 articles.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 11 journals with 'autism' in the title were reviewed, so many autism articles were not included. Topics and participant terms were selected manually from abstracts, so another team might classify the articles differently. The paper reports counts of topics, participant terms, and countries, not patient outcomes or treatment effects. Most corresponding authors were from the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada, and developing countries were largely underrepresented.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the frequent topics as evidence that autism treatments work. This paper counts abstracts in autism journals; it does not test interventions or show patient outcomes.