Healthcare Costs of Pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder in the United States, 2003-2015.
Samuel H Zuvekas, Scott D Grosse, Tara A Lavelle and 3 others
PMID 33113106WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism had higher yearly healthcare spending than other children.
Extra spending averaged $3930 or $5621, depending on how autism was counted.
Key findings
01Weighted ASD prevalence rose from 0.6% to 1.5% by MEPS case status between 2003-2008 and 2013-2015.
02After adjustment, extra annual spending for children with ASD was $3930 using NHIS case status and $5621 using MEPS case status.
03Estimates were sensitive to method: using 2 years of MEPS data lowered the adjusted MEPS incremental estimate to $4948, and limiting the highest spending values reduced estimates by roughly one-third.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The MEPS samples of children with ASD were small even after pooling years, so precision was limited. The study could not separate costs for children with ASD plus intellectual disability, a group likely to have much higher spending. Service use came from household reports, which may miss outpatient care, misreport diagnoses, and omit school-based services. Children in institutions or foster care were not included, and those children may have higher costs. MEPS spending is known to be lower than national accounts, especially for physician, home health, and equipment costs. Cost estimates changed a lot depending on how ASD cases were identified and on whether very high spending values were kept.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial relationships relevant to this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the $3930 or $5621 figures as the true cost of autism for every child. They are average extra spending estimates that changed with the case-finding method and with how very high spending was handled.