Self-Perceived Quality of Life in Spanish-Speaking Women with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Paula Morales Hidalgo, María Merino Martínez, Angélica Gutiérrez González and 4 others
PMID 34953140WHAT IT FOUND
Spanish-speaking women with autism, formally diagnosed or self-diagnosed, rated their quality of life lower than women without autism.
Their lowest areas were relationships, community connection and future security. Scores were similar to men with autism.
Key findings
01Women with a formal autism diagnosis and women who self-diagnosed had the lowest perceived quality of life, and their scores did not differ from each other.
02Both autism groups scored lower than women without autism.
03The lowest quality of life areas for women with autism were relationships, community-connectedness and future security.
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
It was an online survey, so the sample may not represent all Spanish-speaking adults with autism. It was a cross-sectional online survey. Autism severity, cognitive skills and intellectual or language performance were not controlled. Self-diagnosed women were not later assessed for a formal diagnosis. The men with autism group had 65 participants. The groups had different nationality distributions, although the analysis found no differences in quality of life by nationality.
Declared interests
Funded by Universitat Rovira i Virgili. The supplied text does not report other conflict of interest disclosures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that women with autism have lower quality of life than men with autism. The study found no significant difference between these groups, and the men subgroup had 65 participants.