Washington, June 13: A new research has revealed that the generally recommended routine screening of all children for autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is not needed.

According to the researchers, there is `not enough sound evidence to support the implementation of a routine population-based screening program for autism'.

A researcher in McMaster''s CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research and associate professor of pediatrics, Dr. Jan Willem Gorter, said that neither there is any good screening tool or effective treatment nor any evidence yet that routine screening would do more good than harm.

McMaster researchers carried out a literature search for the study to assess the effectiveness of community screening programs for autism.

"None of the autism screening tests currently available has been shown to be able to fulfill the properties of accuracy, namely high sensitivity, high specificity, and high predictive value (proportion of patients with positive test results who are diagnosed correctly) in a population-wide screening program," said researchers.

According to Gorter, the study is a `call for action'.

The study was published in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics. (ANI)