Comparative screening accuracy of the M-CHAT-R/F for early autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review

This systematic review analyzed six high-quality studies covering 12,633 toddlers (12-48 months) to evaluate how well the M-CHAT-R/F screening tool performs compared to other autism screening instruments. The M-CHAT-R/F showed consistently high negative predictive value but variable sensitivity and specificity, indicating it is reliable for ruling out ASD when results are negative but less consistent for detecting potential cases.