Symptom Recognition to Diagnosis: Pathway to Care for Autism in a Tertiary Care Medical Centre

Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice
Suravi PatraSusanta Kumar Padhy

Abstract

Objective  There is no systematic report on pathway to care in autism from tertiary care medical centers of India. The present study was aimed to evaluate the pathways to care among parents of children with autism-seeking treatment at a tertiary care medical center. Methods  Cross-sectional, observational study involving parents of 38 children with autism spectrum disorder diagnosed with INCLEN diagnostic tool. Pathway to care was assessed using World Health Organization Encounter Form. Statistical Analysis   IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 was used for analysis; categorical variables were assessed using Chi-square test keeping statistical significance at 0.05%. Results  A total of 74% parents reported going to a general practitioner and 13% reported going to a child psychiatrist as point of first contact. Among them, 71% parents reported seeking care with a child psychiatrist in a tertiary medical center at the fourth point of contact. Also, 84% parents believed in biomedical explanation of autism. Majority of parents sought for speech therapy and medicines for their child with autism which is in tune with their biomedical explanation. Parents were the first to identify developmental concerns, average a...Continue Reading

Software Mentioned

INCLEN
SPSS

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