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Validated outcome measures with the capacity to reflect meaningful change are key to assessing potential interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We derive clinically meaningful change thresholds (MCTs) of the Autism Impact Measure (AIM) and identify factors associated with meaningful change. Baseline and 12-months follow-up survey of caregivers of 2,761 children with ASD aged 3-17 years from the U.S. Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) cohort were analyzed. Using caregiver-reported anchors for change, the 12-month change in estimated AIM MCT (95% confidence interval) for symptom improvement was -4.5 (-7.61, -1.37) points and 9.9 (5.12, 14.59) points for symptom deterioration. These anchor-based MCTs will facilitate future assessments of caregiver-reported change in AIM scores., Author(s): Mariabeth Silkey [sup.1] , Gonzalo Durán-Pacheco [sup.1] , Michelle Johnson [sup.2] [sup.5] , Chuang Liu [sup.1] , Susanne Clinch [sup.2] , Kiely Law [sup.3] [sup.4] , Georg Loss [sup.1] [...]

To better understand the impact of children's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) severity on families, we evaluated pathways through which ASD severity affected child sleep quality, caregiver strain, and caregiver sleep quality. In a cross-sectional analysis through the U.S.-wide Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) cohort. Participants were caregivers of dependents with ASD aged 3-17 years (N = 3150). We found that increased severity strongly affects caregiver strain and child sleep quality. Child sleep quality was a minor mediator of increasing caregiver strain. Caregiver sleep quality depended on ASD severity only through child sleep quality and caregiver strain. Interventions aimed at improving child sleep quality or reducing caregiver strain could positively impact families of children with ASD., Author(s): Gonzalo Durán-Pacheco [sup.1] , Mariabeth Silkey [sup.1] , Michelle Johnson [sup.2] , Chuang Liu [sup.1] , Susanne Clinch [sup.2] , Kiely Law [sup.3] [sup.4] , Georg Loss [sup.1] Author [...]

The Autism impact measure (AIM) is a caregiver-reported questionnaire assessing autism symptom frequency and impact in children, previously shown to have good test-retest reliability, convergent validity and structural validity. This study extended previous work by exploring the AIM's ability to discriminate between 'known-groups' of children, and estimating thresholds for clinically important responses. Data were collected online and electronically on computer and mobile devices; hence, it was also possible to confirm other psychometric properties of the AIM in this format. This study provides confirmatory and additional psychometric validation of the AIM. The AIM offers a valid, quick and inexpensive method for caregivers to report core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) including communication deficits, difficulties with social interactions and repetitive behaviors., Author(s): Richard Houghton [sup.1] [sup.2] , Brigitta Monz [sup.1] , Kiely Law [sup.3] [sup.4] , Georg Loss [sup.1] , Stephanie Le Scouiller [sup.5] , Frank de Vries [sup.2] [sup.6] , [...]

Author(s): Mariabeth Silkey [sup.1], Gonzalo Durán-Pacheco [sup.1], Michelle Johnson [sup.2] [sup.5], Chuang Liu [sup.1], Susanne Clinch [sup.2], Kiely Law [sup.3] [sup.4], Georg Loss [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.417570.0, 0000 0004 [...]

The article Psychometric Validation of the Autism Impact Measure (AIM), written by Richard Houghton, Brigitta Monz, Kiely Law, Georg Loss, Stephanie Le Scouiller, Frank de Vries and Tom Willgoss was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 09 April 2019 without open access.With the author(s)' decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on May 2019 to © The Author(s) 2019 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made., Author(s): Richard Houghton [sup.1] [sup.2] , Brigitta Monz [sup.1] , Kiely Law [sup.3] [sup.4] , Georg Loss [sup.1] , Stephanie Le Scouiller [sup.5] , Frank de Vries [sup.2] [sup.6] , [...]