[andrewjl]

TIL autism has been linked to environmental factors like metabolic syndrome during the first trimester of pregnancy, air pollution, and pesticide exposure. Some of these frequently co-occur with specific gene mutations. [1][2] There's a good argument that everyone has more exposure to everything on that list nowadays. Increased diagnoses would then make a lot of sense.

Teasing out the specifics of how much each of these contribute and separating that out from possible confounders like greater screening and others does seem like a tough study to design.

[1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/environmental-auti...

[2] https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/conditions/autism