Effectiveness of Screening in Early Intervention Settings to Improve Diagnosis of Autism and Reduce Health Disparities.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends referring children at elevated risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for Part C early intervention (EI) services, but notes that EI services often fail to provide ASD screening.

Objective

To evaluate the hypothesis that a multistage screening protocol for ASD implemented in 3 EI settings will increase autism detection, especially among Spanish-speaking families.

Design, setting, and participants

Difference-in-differences analyses with propensity score weighting of a quasi-experimental design using administrative data on 3 implementation EI agencies and 9 comparison EI agencies from 2012 to 2018 provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Eligible children were aged 14 to 36 months, enrolled in EI

SUBMITTER: Sheldrick RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8728657 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature