AI Article Synopsis

  • * A study of over 19,000 autistic youth revealed they had higher rates of hospitalization and specialist visits, particularly for mental health medications compared to non-autistic youth.
  • * Autistic youth with intellectual disabilities showed increased physical health service usage but lower mental health service usage, indicating a gap in healthcare meeting the needs of autistic youth that requires further investigation and improvement.

Article Abstract

Autistic youth generally use healthcare services more often than non-autistic youth. However, we know very little about the factors that can affect health service use and the types of services that are used, and this has not been explored in Aotearoa New Zealand. We analysed data from New Zealand to compare health service use among autistic and non-autistic youth (0 to 24-year-olds). Data were available for 19,479 autistic youth and 1,561,278 non-autistic youth. We compared hospitalizations, specialist visits, emergency department visits and use of different types of medications. In this study, autistic youth were found to have been hospitalized for medical and mental health reasons, more often than non-autistic youth. Autistic youth were also more likely to have attended specialist appointments and to have been given medication. These differences were particularly large for medications commonly used for mental health conditions (e.g. anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or associated symptoms. Autistic youth who also had an intellectual disability were more likely to use healthcare services for physical health conditions, but were less likely to use mental health services, when compared with autistic youth who did not have an intellectual disability. These findings, along with other research, suggest that the healthcare needs of autistic youth are not always being met. Further work is needed to enhance our understanding of co-occurring conditions among autistic youth, including those that result in high rates of health service use, in order to inform the development of healthcare services and training for healthcare professionals to better cater to the needs of autistic youth.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613241298352DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

autistic youth
40
health service
16
non-autistic youth
16
youth
14
healthcare services
12
mental health
12
autistic
11
health
8
aotearoa zealand
8
study autistic
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!