Do autistic patients change healthcare services utilisation through the transition age? An Italian longitudinal retrospective study.

Objectives: This paper aims to provide an estimate of the prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 8-year-olds in 2017 based on administrative databases and to investigate the change in healthcare service use during the healthcare transition age of 18.

Design: This research is based on a longitudinal retrospective cohort study.

Setting: The data is drawn from the Italian Administrative Healthcare Database (2010-2017).

Participants: We identified 5607 ASD patients; 331 ASD patients from 2012 to 2015 in the calendar year of their 18th birthday were selected and their health service utilisation during a 5-year period-ranging from 2 years preceding and succeeding their 18th year-were investigated.

Interventions: None.

Primary And Secondary Outcome Measures: Prevalence, incidence and proportion of ASD patients receiving specific healthcare services were included in the outcome measures.

Results: Prevalence of ASD at age 8 was 5.4/1000. Global access to health and social services was lower both before and after age 18 (46.5% at 16; 68.0% at 18; 54.1% at 20). The percentage of patients receiving a neuropsychiatric consultation decreased after age 18 (30.8% at 18; 5.4% at 20). Community mental health services (CMHS) utilisation rate increased above 18 years of age. Regarding psychiatric visits, for both outpatient and CMHS, an increase was observed from 17.8% at age 18 to 25.4% at age 20. The utilisation of rehabilitation services decreased with age, dropping from 17.8% at age 16 to 1.8% at age 20. Psychiatric outpatient services remained stable across ages at about 14%.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that ASD patients changed clinical reference services with age from neuropsychiatric and rehabilitative services towards psychiatric and community-based services as they transitioned from paediatric to adult healthcare services.