Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Disorders linked to autism affect 1 in 150 U.S. children, more than 10 times some previous estimates for autism alone, health officials said.

The disorders affect mostly boys and typically surface before age 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a study it called the most complete to date.

``This data helps us look at individuals and families affected today,'' said Catherine Rice, a behavioral scientist at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, on a conference call today.

Autism and the related disorders, some of them less severe, cause social, communicative and behavioral problems. They're called autistic spectrum disorders, or ASDs, and affect four to five times more boys than girls, the study said.

``Our estimates are becoming better and more consistent, though we can't yet tell if there is a true increase in ASDs or if the changes are the result of our better studies,'' CDC Director Julie Gerberding said in a statement. ``We do know, however, that these disorders are affecting too many children.''

The autism-related conditions were most common in New Jersey, with almost 1 in 100 children affected. On the conference call with reporters, researchers said they didn't have details as to why numbers might vary depending on location.

Children with symptoms may refuse to engage with people, avoid eye contact, echo words and phrases they hear, or repeat actions many times. Some of the children regress, losing skills they once had, the CDC said.

Symptoms

The disorders typically are diagnosed at age 4 or 5, more than a year after they surface. The CDC said it has a program called ``Act Early'' aimed at helping parents spot autism risk factors and get help earlier.

The study analyzed data from six communities in 2000 and 14 communities in 2002. All of the children were 8 years old, the age by which previous studies found that most children with the disorders had been identified.

The 2002 data showed 6.6 cases of autism-related disorders for every 1,000 children, the study said. The CDC said that for decades, autism was estimated to affect 4 to 5 out of every 10,000 children.

The CDC will look at risk factors, including the effects of location, environment and hormones, in studies through 2010, said Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of developmental disabilities at the CDC birth-defects center, on the teleconference.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 8, 2007 17:51 EST