{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T08:59:47Z","timestamp":1790585987004,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790553600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a major global public-health concern, yet timely identification and support remain difficult to access for many families, especially in rural, low-resource, and otherwise underserved settings. Emerging information technologies have been proposed as tools for narrowing this service gap. These include artificial intelligence (AI), wearable sensors, and the Internet of Things, mobile health applications and digital therapeutics, telehealth, immersive virtual and augmented reality, social robotics, and large language models. This narrative review organizes the evidence across an autism service and prevention continuum: upstream risk awareness and health education, early screening and diagnosis, and intervention, management, and long-term support. We use this continuum strictly as a public-health service-organization framework, not to imply preventing the birth or existence of autistic individuals, consistent with a neurodiversity-affirming perspective. Across each stage, we apply a health-equity lens centered on reach, affordability, scalability, health-system integration, and equity of performance. We summarize current applications, appraise recurring limitations, and synthesize cross-cutting issues of equity, data governance, ethics, neurodiversity, and implementation. Recurring limitations include small and heterogeneous studies, dataset bias, weak external validation, short follow-up, and uneven regulatory maturity. Emerging information technologies show genuine promise as complements to conventional autism services, particularly where specialist resources are scarce. Realizing population-level benefit will require equity-centered design, validation in diverse and low-resource settings, larger and longer trials, interoperable standards, and meaningful involvement of autistic people and their families.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1900591","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T08:40:41Z","timestamp":1790584841000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Emerging information technologies across the autism service and prevention continuum: a narrative review of screening, diagnosis, intervention, and health equity"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xugao","family":"Han","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medical Humanities, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhen","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medical Humanities, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Houxi","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine Research of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lingyan","family":"Weng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Tourism Management, Nanjing Institute of Tourism and Hospitality","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"111","article-title":"The global epidemiology and health burden of the autism spectrum: findings from the global burden of disease study 2021","author":"Santomauro","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref2","first-page":"344","article-title":"GBD 2021 nervous system disorders collaborators global, regional, and National Burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990\u20132021: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2021","volume-title":"The Lancet Neurology","author":"Steinmetz","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref3","first-page":"137","article-title":"Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990\u20132019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019","volume-title":"The Lancet Psychiatry","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref4","first-page":"e480","article-title":"The epidemiology and burden of ten mental disorders in countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1990\u20132021: findings from the global burden of disease study 2021","volume-title":"The Lancet Public Health","author":"Sz\u00fccs","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e43226","DOI":"10.7759\/cureus.43226","article-title":"Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder: a review and analysis of the risks and benefits","volume":"15","author":"Okoye","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"456","DOI":"10.1111\/jcpp.13936","article-title":"Considering intersectionality and interacting levels of early intervention on early brain development\u2014a commentary on Nelson et al. 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