Measuring autistic traits in the general population: a systematic review of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) in a nonclinical population sample of 6,900 typical adult males and females

Table 2 Descriptive statistics for selected articles

	Nonclinical Sample ^a			Nonclinical Sample - BAP excluded ^b			Matched ASC Cases ^c
	Males ^d	Females ^e	Overall ^f	Males ^d	Females ^e	Overall ^f	Males ^d	Females ^e	Overall ^f
Mean AQ	17.89	14.88	16.94	14.84	12.73	15.03	36.40	38.83	35.19
Range	11.4 to 19.0	10.4 to 17.4	11.6 to 20.0	11.7 to 18.3	10.4 to 17.0	11.9 to 17.6	28.0 to 40.1	31.9 to 42.5	27.6 to 41.1
SD Range	4.2 to 7.9	4.2 to 8.0	0.8 to 9.7	4.5 to 6.9	4.2 to 4.8	0.8 to 6.4	6.8 to 13.0	4.4 to 13.0	4.6 to 10.1
CI	16.7 to 19.1	13.3 to 16.5	16.4 to 17.4	7.0 to 22.7	4.9 to 20.6	13.0 to 17.1	33.1 to 39.7	36.3 to 41.4	34.5 to 35.9
N (studies)	10	10	72	3	3	7	6	6	39
N (participants)	872	1378	4931	77	74	174	363	298	1374

Nonclinical Sample^a describes reports from nonclinical samples. Nonclinical Sample – BAP excluded^b describes a subset of the previous sample, where it was specified that individuals from the BAP had been excluded. Matched ASC Cases^c describes reports from available matched autism spectrum cases. Statistics calculated for all available reported data (see also Table 1). Males^d and Females^e refer to available data reported by sex, while Overall^f refers to samples from studies reporting undifferentiated or combined male and female score. AQ: Autism-Spectrum Quotient; ASC: Autism spectrum conditions; BAP: broader autism phenotype; CI: confidence interval; N: number; SD: standard deviation.

ISSN: 2040-2392