Clinical Validation of the Autism Behavior Inventory: Caregiver-Rated Assessment of Core and Associated Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Abigail Bangerter, Seth Ness, David Lewin and 10 others
PMID 30888551WHAT IT FOUND
Caregiver ratings on the Autism Behavior Inventory were stable over 3 to 5 days and matched other parent-reported autism, anxiety, behavior and burden measures.
Short-term changes tracked reported improvement, but no treatment effect was tested.
Key findings
01Caregiver ratings on the ABI were stable when repeated 3 to 5 days later, with correlations from 0.84 to 0.93.
02ABI domain scores agreed strongly with other caregiver-reported autism, anxiety, repetitive behavior and behavior-problem measures, and separated participants with ASD from typically developing participants.
03ABI score changes tracked parent-reported improvement in autism severity or caregiver burden.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was non-interventional, and participants continued ongoing behavioral or pharmacologic treatment, so changes over 8 to 10 weeks cannot be attributed to a specific treatment. The change analyses relied on the same caregivers rating both the ABI and the reference measures, so reported improvement could reflect caregiver perception rather than verified behavior change. The sample was modest for psychometric validation, and some analyses used fewer participants than were enrolled. The cohort was verbal, had average IQ, was mostly White, included only people aged 6 years or older, and had fewer adults and fewer extreme challenging behaviors. The ABI did not correlate well with ADOS-2, and it was not developed as a diagnostic tool, so it should not be used to diagnose ASD. Interrater reliability between caregivers was not established, and a clinician-rated version was still in development.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Janssen Research and Development, LLC, USA. The ABI and ABI-S are available without charge for academic, research, and professional use, subject to terms and conditions, and can be downloaded from a Janssen website or requested by email.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the ABI as proof that a treatment works or as a stand-alone diagnostic test. The study was non-interventional, the ABI was not developed as a diagnostic tool, and it correlated poorly with ADOS-2.