Study Finds Children With Intellectual Disability Have Less Access to Health Care Than Children With Autism: Wright State University
A study completed by researchers at the
Haller, from
"When discussing potential research ideas, we wondered if the increase in media and medical attention given to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder was leaving children with Intellectual Disability behind, so to speak," Haller said. "Specifically, since the diagnosis and general awareness of ASD has increased, do children with ID have more unmet health care needs than children with ASD?"
Haller studied published literature but couldn't find anything related to her research question. She knew that more study was needed and began to look at other sources of information. The search led her to consider data from the
The survey asks questions of families around
"I focused on data from questions regarding children with special needs, the care they received and issues families encountered regarding health care for the selected child," Haller said. "I statistically analyzed 22 items from the 2016-2017 NSCH data set."
Relying on descriptive statistical analysis and specialized software, Haller analyzed available data from the survey to see if there were any differences in access to care. She also considered issues facing families with children who have ASD and compared them to issues facing families with children who have ID.
For all data, Haller performed univariate analysis with a Pearson's chi-squared test. Her analysis used 95% confidence intervals. Odds ratios were adjusted for these parameters: sex of the child; public or private health insurance; and highest education level of the parents.
As she analyzed the data, Haller performed further analysis if statistical findings for a particular pair of variables were found to be significant. She then assessed the relative odds of occurrences for children with ID versus for children with ASD.
"We found that children with ID are more likely to have unmet health care needs for medical, dental, hearing and vision care than children with ASD. Additionally, children with ID are less likely than children with ASD to have consistent health insurance, which hinders their ability to receive quality, sufficient care," Haller said. "This suggests that children with ID, more so than those with ASD, have unmet basic health care needs."
The study also revealed that children with ASD have unmet mental health care needs, but their access to mental health care was found to be reasonable. In future studies, Haller would like to compare the 2016-2017 surveys to those of subsequent years. She also is interested in comparing data by state and studying how laws in different states have affected access to health care for children with ID and ASD.
Haller's interest in medicine began with her desire to work with children who have special needs. Developmental behavioral pediatrics seems like an ideal fit, and she plans to pursue a pediatrics specialty after graduation.
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