Caregiver Burden Varies by Sensory Subtypes and Sensory Dimension Scores of Children with Autism.
Brittany N Hand, Alison E Lane, Paul De Boeck and 3 others
PMID 29076036WHAT IT FOUND
Caregiver health-related quality of life was not associated with child sensory subtype or sensory profile measures.
Caregiver strain was higher for children in the generalized sensory difference subtype or with greater multisensory integration difficulties than for children in adaptive or taste/smell sensitive subtypes.
Key findings
01Caregiver physical and mental health-related quality of life was not significantly associated with child sensory subtype or child sensory dimension scores.
02Caregivers of children in the sensory adaptive and taste/smell sensitive subtypes were associated with less strain than caregivers of children in the generalized sensory difference subtype when caregiver age, child age, and household income were held constant.
03Greater child difficulties with multisensory integration were associated with higher caregiver objective, subjective internalized, and subjective externalized strain, and this association was stronger than for sensory reactivity difficulties.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that sensory subtype or sensory dimension scores cause caregiver burden. ASD diagnosis was caregiver-reported. Confirmation was stronger for Interactive Autism Network participants than for some other recruits. The sensory adaptive subtype was underrepresented. Recruitment materials emphasized sensory processing, and clinical recruitment sites may have reached fewer children in that subtype. Children with neurological, genetic, or significant physical disabilities were excluded, so the results may not apply to those families. Other factors that may influence burden, such as intellectual ability, expressive language, social support, and coping, were not measured. The analysis used complex multivariate models based on linear combinations of variables. The authors recommended replication with larger samples and other statistical methods. The study did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that treating sensory difficulties reduces strain.
Declared interests
The named authors declared no conflicts of interest. No funding source is stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a child's sensory subtype causes caregiver strain or that treating sensory difficulties will reduce burden. The study was cross-sectional and measured associations only.