Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) test

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06 Dec 2009, 9:52 pm

This test has become part of a set of tests topic on this forum:
Set of scientific tests related to Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Spokane_Girl

07 Dec 2009, 3:24 am

Spokane_Girl wrote:

I score in the 30's every time I take it. I don't take it anymore.

My husband got 27.

Nightsun
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07 Dec 2009, 3:45 am

I usually score between 34 and 37 on AQ. 27 on EQ and 70 on SQ (original), 15 EQ and 115 SQ on the revised one.

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Last edited by Nightsun on 07 Dec 2009, 7:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

rdos
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07 Dec 2009, 3:56 am

Callista wrote:

Something to remember about screening tests:

Out of 1,000 people, ten will be autistic and 990 will be non-autistic.

Have the 1,000 people take the AQ test.

80% of the autistics (8 people) will score between 32 and 50.
2% of the non-autistics (19.8; round up to 20) will score between 32 and 50.

Therefore, if a random person takes the test and gets a score between 32 and 50, there is a 28% chance that they actually are autistic.

OK, but this has something to say about either the AQ-test or the broader autism phenotype.

Either:

1. The AQ-test does an awful job at discriminating ASCs
2. ASCs are badly defined, and therefore the AQ-test cannot do better
3. There are 4 times as many people with autistic traits than gets a diagnosis.

Add to this that I believe the 2% figure "in the general population" really is an underestimate because the control-group used probably isn't representative of the general population. My guess is that they selected psychology-students, or some social area students, which will bias results towards more NTs.

If the true figure in a really random population study is larger, it means the AQ test is even worse, or that autistic traits are even more common than 4%.

Aspie-quiz has 16% of "very likely Aspie" in a random Internet-community, which is 8 times higher. Add to that that it seems to discriminate better than the AQ-test, and a similar amount of diagnosed ASCs (80% in earlier versions) got their diagnosis confirmed.

My guess is that autistic traits has a prevalence of about 5-10% in the general population, and that 5-10 times more people have autistic traits than are diagnosed with ASCs.

Klom
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07 Dec 2009, 4:09 am

rdos: Interesting! But traits doesn't neccesarily equate an autism disorder. And by definition the autistic traits needs to be problematic if someone is to get a diagnosis.

I got 35.

rdos
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07 Dec 2009, 5:15 am

Klom wrote:

rdos: Interesting! But traits doesn't neccesarily equate an autism disorder. And by definition the autistic traits needs to be problematic if someone is to get a diagnosis.

I got 35.

Yes, but if the broader autism phenotype is 5-10 times larger than the diagnosable population, this means that diagnostic criteria can be tweaked so the diagnosis rate can rise another 5-10 times before there is nobody left with autistic traits to diagnose. :evil:

And if the current situation for people with autistic traits continues to deteriorate, many more will be diagnosable in the future because many more will get problems because of their autistic traits.

wigglyspider
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07 Dec 2009, 6:18 am

24
But I'm not AS, I'm PDD.
Stuff like changing routine and meeting new people doesn't bother me, I'm just horrible at it. XD;

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Lucilu
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07 Dec 2009, 8:44 am

Scored 42.

ttqs84
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07 Dec 2009, 3:41 pm

i scored a 27. what's that supposed to mean?

Callista
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07 Dec 2009, 10:00 pm

rdos wrote:

Callista wrote:

Oh, yes; there are definitely more people with autistic traits than there are autistics. But this isn't really a problem with this particular test; it's just a problem with screening tests in general. I found a Wikipedia article about it--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy

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