Prevalence of selected clinical problems in older adults with autism and intellectual disability

Public Deposited
Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Creator
  • Kats, Dmitry
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
  • Payne, Leslie
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
  • Parlier, Morgan
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
  • Piven, Joseph
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
Abstract
  • Abstract Background Originally described as a disorder of childhood, evidence now demonstrates the lifelong nature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite the increase of the population over age 65, older adults with ASD remain a scarcely explored subpopulation. This study set out to investigate the prevalence of clinically relevant behaviors and medical problems in a sample of US adults aged 30 to 59 with ASD and intellectual disability (ID), in comparison to those with ID only. Methods A cross-sectional study, with both an exploratory and replication analysis, was conducted using National Core Indicators (NCI) multi-state surveys from 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011. There were 4,989 and 4,261 adults aged 30–59 with ID examined from the 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011 samples, respectively. The two consecutive annual samples consisted of 438 (9%) and 298 (7%) individuals with ASD and ID. Variables were chosen from the NCI data as outcomes, including medication use for behavior problems, severe or aggressive behavior problems and selected medical conditions. Results No age-associated disparities were observed between adults with ASD and ID versus adults with ID only in either sample. For the 2009 to 2010 sample, the prevalence of support needed to manage self-injurious, disruptive and destructive behavior in subjects with ASD and ID ranged from 40 to 60%. Similarly, the prevalence estimates of self-injurious, disruptive and destructive behavior were each almost double in adults with ASD and ID relative to those with ID only. These results were replicated in the 2010 to 2011 sample. Conclusions The findings of this study highlight the urgent need for research on the nature and treatment of severe behavior problems in the rapidly increasing population of older adults with ASD. They also suggest the importance of developing policies that expand our capacity to care for these individuals.
Date of publication
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Rights holder
  • Dmitry Kats et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
License
Journal title
  • Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Journal volume
  • 5
Journal issue
  • 1
Page start
  • 27
Language
  • English
Is the article or chapter peer-reviewed?
  • Yes
ISSN
  • 1866-1955
Bibliographic citation
  • Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 2013 Sep 25;5(1):27
Publisher
  • BioMed Central Ltd
Access right
  • Open Access
Date uploaded
  • December 3, 2013

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details 1866-1955-5-27.pdf 2019-05-06 Public Download
file details 1866-1955-5-27.xml 2019-05-06 Public Download