National Autism Indicators Report Includes Health Information Across the Lifespan
The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute recently published it’s sixth report in the National Autism Indicators Report series, which gave a comprehensive picture of what health and healthcare look like for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across the lifespan. Overall, the Drexel researchers found that people with autism are in need of more medication and need more types of routine and specialty healthcare than people with other types of disabilities. The report found that the current healthcare system regularly fails to meet these increased needs, resulting in more frequent emergency healthcare services and hospitalizations for the ASD population. The research team also discovered that children with autism often suffer with learning disabilities, behavior or conduct problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), speech or language disorder, and anxiety. Once individuals with autism become adults, a new list of health concerns appear. The report shows that adults with ASD may develop conditions like depression, hypertension, epilepsy, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Sadly, the report detailed that almost half (46%) of parents of children with autism reported that their health insurance did not always cover the services their child needed. Furthermore, 20% of parents disclosed that they avoided changing jobs in order for their health insurance to not be disrupted, a rate five times higher than parents of children without special needs.
