 While some of these costs are incurred for diagnosis and treatment costs, the problem is exacerbated by reduced family earnings when a family member may forgo working in order to care for a family member with autism.As recently as 1984, researchers questioned whether autism was a universal phenomenon.Some scientists believed that autism was a condition limited to Western and technologically developed nations; however, now there is evidence of increased prevalence of and knowledge about ASD cross-culturally and internationally.