Acceptability and Implementation of a Primary Care Health Check for Autistic People: Findings From Evaluation Questionnaires and Interviews.
Hannah Merrick, Helen Taylor, Barry Ingham and 20 others
91% of autistic adults who had a primary care health check said they would attend another, and 85% wanted it annual.
The evaluation found it acceptable to patients, carers, and clinicians. It does not test whether the check improves health outcomes.
Key findings
191% of autistic people who completed the evaluation said they would attend another health check, and 85% suggested it should be annual.
246% of autistic people requested reasonable adjustments for their appointment. Of those, 59% reported most or all adjustments were implemented, and all who received them found them helpful.
3Clinicians identified practical barriers to routine implementation: late or same-day PAQ submissions, time pressures in primary care, and the need for protected clinical time and funding.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The health check was delivered in a research context with trial funding, protected clinical time, and additional support structures. Clinicians noted that sustaining this in routine practice would require protected time and financial incentives, which were not present in standard NHS primary care. All study materials and questionnaires were in English only, with no British Sign Language or other language interpretation, which may have excluded or disadvantaged some autistic adults. Carer/supporter and non-clinical staff recruitment was lower than expected (11 and 4 respectively), limiting the depth of understanding of the administrative and support processes around the health check. The 26 practices were all in Northern England, so findings may not generalise to other regions or health systems. Some autistic people were unclear about the scope of the health check (expecting a full physical examination or, conversely, finding it more comprehensive than expected), suggesting that pre-appointment communication about what the check covers needs improvement.
Declared interests
Funded by Autistica (a UK autism research charity), the Peter Sowerby Foundation, and NHS England via the Learning Disability and Autism Programme. The funders were not involved in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript writing. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 91% willingness to re-attend as proof the health check improves health. This paper measures acceptability and implementation, not clinical outcomes. The trial's effectiveness and cost-effectiveness results are reported in a separate publication.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →