Publications by authors named "Sherira Fernandes"

Reducing the age of first autism diagnosis facilitates access to critical early intervention services. A current "waitlist crisis" for autism diagnostic evaluation thus demands that we consider novel use of available clinical resources. Previous work has found that expert autism clinicians can identify autism in young children with high specificity after only a brief observation; rapid identification by non-experts remains untested.

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This study examined hospitalizations in a large, all-payer, nationally representative sample of inpatient hospitalizations in the US and identified differences in rates of hospitalization for conditions by race and ethnicity in autistic adults. Conditions examined included mood disorders, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs). Compared to white, non-Hispanic autistic adults, Black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander (API), and autistic adults of another race had lower prevalence of admission for a principal diagnosis of a mood disorder.

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Background: Addressing health care needs is complex in autistic youth for many reasons. Increased inpatient care that has been noted in this population, particularly for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), may be a marker of inadequate primary and outpatient care.

Methods: This study used data from hospital inpatient discharges from the National Inpatient Sample 2017.

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Diagnosticians report that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is immediately apparent in some, but not all, children ultimately diagnosed. Clinicians' initial diagnostic impressions have implications for ASD early detection, yet the literature raises questions about their accuracy. This study explores diagnostic impressions of ASD specialists made within the first 5 minutes of meeting a young child and investigates factors associated with the match between initial impressions and final diagnoses.

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This study used latent class analysis to empirically derive profiles of religious involvement among a sample of 808 young adults and describe ethnic and gender differences within such religious involvement patterns. Items on the Duke Religion Index were included as part of a larger longitudinal survey of emotional, physical, and behavioral health. The scale measured the organizational, nonorganizational, and intrinsic dimensions of religiosity (Koenig et al.

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