Quality of life for children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Quality of life is an essential component of information about children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders. The purpose of the present study was to assess the quality of life of children with this pathology. Materials and methods. Fifty-two 5-6 year patients with autism spectrum disorders were examined at the clinical and diagnostic centre of the Federal State Autonomous Institution «National Medical Research Center for Children’s Health» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The comparison group was fifty-one healthy children matched for age and gender. Quality of life was assessed by interviewing patient parents using the Russian-language version for 5-12 years children of the Health Utilities Index (HUI). Statistical analysis was performed using the «SPSS v.26.0» («StatSoft Inc.»). Results. The quality of life of children with autism spectrum disorders turned out to be significantly lower than the scores of healthy children due to the aspects of «Speech», «Cognition», «Emotion». At the same time, parents of patients were less likely to note the presence of pain. Levels of disability categories are determined for each attribute of quality of life. Conclusion. Presented features of violations of quality of life in children with autism spectrum disorders allow suggesting a complete picture of the disorders to improve the medical care of these patients.