Psychometric evaluation of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in autistic and non-autistic adults.

Autism diagnoses were self-reported and not confirmed by a clinician, and the study did not distinguish diagnostic methods or historical categories such as Asperger's syndrome. The CATI was not tested in a real clinical assessment pathway, so it is unknown how well it predicts later autism diagnosis. The total score did not strongly represent one single autistic trait dimension, so relying on the total alone can be misleading. The sample was mostly White, English-speaking and online, so it may not represent multiply marginalised or minority racial or ethnic groups. Co-occurring conditions such as anxiety disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder were not examined, so scores may reflect other conditions as well. Test-retest stability and comparison with some contemporary measures were not assessed.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding was partially from an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant and a Simons Foundation SFARI grant, with support from Embrace at The Kids Research Institute Australia.

Do not read the 147.5 cut-off as a diagnosis. The autistic diagnoses were self-reported and not clinically confirmed, and the authors advise that clinicians should not rely heavily on CATI results until it is tested in real assessment settings.