Association between guardian's first notice of autism symptom of children and time to seek medical care.

Jianmin Wang; Xia LI; Zheng Nong; Yan Huang; Ziyu Ling; Yuanyuan Qin; Senbei Yang; Jing Zhang; Email: Fyebzj@126com

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Association between guardian's first notice of autism symptom of children and time to seek medical care.

Author: Jianmin WANG ¹ ; Xia LI ¹ ; Zheng NONG ² ; Yan HUANG ³ ; Ziyu LING ¹ ; Yuanyuan QIN ¹ ; Senbei YANG ¹ ; Jing ZHANG ⁴ ; Email: FYEBZJ@126.COM.
Author Information

1. Department of Maternal and Child Health Care, School of Public Health, Tongji College of Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
2. Women and Children's Health Care Hospital of Liuzhou City Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
3. Hainan Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital.
4. Department of Maternal and Child Health Care, School of Public Health, Tongji College of Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Publication Type:Journal Article
MeSH: Age of Onset; Autistic Disorder; diagnosis; Caregivers; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Surveys and Questionnaires; Time-to-Treatment
From: Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 2015;36(10):1077-1080
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract:
OBJECTIVETo understand the symptoms of autism of children that caused the first notice of guardian, related risk factors and the influence on the time to seek medical care.
METHODSThe children with autism aged <5 years were selected from autism rehabilitation centers in Wuhan, Changsha, Haikou, Liuzhou and Changsha between September 2012 and April 2014, and their guardians were retrospectively surveyed by using questionnaire. SPSS 13.0 software was used for statistical analysis.
RESULTSA total of 415 children with autism were included in the study. Including 355 boys (85.54%) and 60 girls (14.46%), the sex ratio was 5.9 : 1. The most common concern of guardian were: language dysplasia (20.72%); ignoring of people or lack of interaction with others (18.55%); repeat and weird action pattern (14.94%). The age when the first symptom occurred, which causing guardians' concern, ranged from 8 months to 28 months, the time when guardian began to concern varied with symptom (χ² =46.64, P<0.000 1). Guardian's educational level, guardian's contact time with the children, guardian's intimate degree with the children, the age of guardian, family type and tie had no statistical association with the fist autism symptom that caused guardian's concern. The age of the children at first medical care seeking ranged from 10.5 months to 33 months, the time of the first medical care seeking varied with symptom (χ² =46.10, P<0.000 1). Up to 90.74% of the guardians delayed the medical care seeking of the children with autism, but the symptom specific differences in medical care delay had no statistical significance (χ² =9.46, P=0.579 6).
CONCLUSIONThe symptom of the children with autism causing guardian's first notice were mainly verbal communication barrier, social interaction barrier and restricted interests and behaviors. Guardian's educational level and intimate degree with children had no correlation with the symptom which caused guardian's first notice. The time when guardian began to concern and the time for children's medical care varied with guardian's first notice.