Health Concerns and Health Service Utilization in a Population Cohort of Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Jonathan A Weiss, Barry Isaacs, Heidi Diepstra and 4 others
PMID 28900771WHAT IT FOUND
Young adults with autism spectrum disorder were more likely than peers without developmental disability to have psychiatric diagnoses and mental health service use.
Compared with peers with other developmental disabilities, they had more psychiatric diagnoses and psychiatrist visits, but not more hospitalizations.
Key findings
01Compared with young adults without developmental disability, those with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to have every measured health condition and had 5.2 times greater odds of at least one psychiatric diagnosis.
02Compared with young adults with other developmental disability, those with autism spectrum disorder were less likely to have asthma, hypertension, and substance-related or addictive disorders, but were more likely to have a psychiatric diagnosis, with 1.89 times greater odds.
03The autism spectrum disorder group had more psychiatrist visits and psychiatric emergency department visits than the other developmental disability group, but hospitalization rates were similar.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used administrative records, so young adults with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental disability could have been missed if they did not receive disability income support or had no coded health care encounter. Autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disability are broad groups, and the study could not capture severity, intellectual disability, or adaptive function. The data did not include seizures or gastrointestinal problems, which are common concerns in autism spectrum disorder. The data did not include psychologist or community mental health services, so mental health service use may be underestimated. The groups differed in age and sex, with the autism spectrum disorder group more likely to be male and younger, and the study only controlled for these demographics.
Declared interests
The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care funded the study. The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the higher service use compared with the general population as evidence that autism spectrum disorder causes higher health need than all developmental disabilities. Compared with peers with other developmental disabilities, physical health conditions and hospitalizations were often similar or lower. The clear excess was in psychiatric diagnosis and mental health service use.