Abstract
In Bangladesh, nearly 10.5 hundred thousand individuals may have autism. Recent figures released by the CDC (2012) show that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) now affect 1 in 88 children. Cognitive impairment, limited adaptive skills, and severe social impairment as seen in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) thought to be associated with poorer health related quality of life (HRQoL). The objective of the study was to measure HRQoL and cognitive functioning in a group of autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children and to relate HRQoL with their socio demographic characteristics and cognitive functioning from parents' perception. This cross sectional study was conducted amongl49 purposively selected parents who have institutionalized autistic children (2 to 18 years old) from January to June 2013. HRQoL was assessed by Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (Vemil998) and cognitive functioning was assessed with The PedsQL TM Cognitive Functioning Scale. Three fourth of the children were male (n=-115, 77.2%) and the mean (SD) age of the children was 7.8(3.06) years. Symptoms of autism appeared at about their 2rd birthday 2.1 (.70) while the average (SD) age of diagnosis was around three years 2.9 (.98). The children were reported to go to school at an early age of 3(1.75) years. Out of 149 respondents, ten percent parents (n=14) had the history of consanguineous marriage. The sample data provides significant difference between the scores by the ability of verbal communication (p<.05), presence of autistic siblings (p<.05) and mother's occupation (p<.05). There found negative correlation between HRQoL and age of symptom appearance and cognitive functioning with age of diagnosis (r = - 0.18; p=.03). Cognitive functioning was strongly correlated with total PedsQL score and its domains (r = 0.73; p=.00). i.e. Higher cognitive function leads to good health related quality of life. Linear regression was performed to study the relationship between HRQoL and independent variables found significant in univariate analysis. The results of the regression indicated the predictors in the model explained 57 % of the variance (R2=.57, F=23.05, p<.001). It was found that fathers who were doctors and engineers by profession (t=2.34, p= .02), child's ability to communicate with words (t= 2.73, p= .007), age of symptom appearance (t= -2.71, p=.008), and cognitive functioning (t =12.28, p <0.001) significantly predicted HRQol of ASD children. Father's occupational status child's ability to communicate by word, age of symptom appearance, and Cognitive functioning of ASD children were found related to their quality of life.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders, having three core features: deficits in socialization, deficits in verbal & nonverbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours.[1]
HealthRelated Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a comprehensive approach to measure health outcomes which is a subjective term that emphasizes happiness and overall wellbeing as they relate to conditions that have a multidimensional impact, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).[2]
In the Institution for Paediatric Neuro-disorders and Autism (IPNA), at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University only 12 children attended with autism in the year 2001, which increased to 105 children in 2009 suggesting increase in prevalence, more awareness amongst parents and probably improvement in screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.[3]
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders, having three core features: deficits in socialization, deficits in verbal & nonverbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours.[1]. ASDs regularly experience severe difficulties especially in interpersonal relationships and often appear as solitary in their familial and social milieu. HRQoL was found lower among children with ASD and psychotropic medications often contribute some extra score to make it better. HRQoL was found correlated with severity of disorder and the age that the first signs appeared.[4] recent studies confirm, that higher cognitive scores do not necessarily reflect better adaptive skill in children with ASD, leading to considerable impairment in everyday life.[5] Over one third of children with
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