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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability and is of public health importance. It affects not only the child and the family. It also has direct and indirect cost implications on the nation that are incurred in providing health care, support for education, and rehabilitative services. There is a lack of evidence-based estimate of the population prevalence of ASD in India. Therefore, this systematic review was aimed at determining the prevalence of ASD in the Indian population.Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published studies evaluating the prevalence of ASD in the community setting. A search within the published literature was conducted from different databases (PubMed, OvidSP, and EMBASE). The analysis of data was done using STATA MP12 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA).Results: Four studies were included in this systematic review. Of the four included studies, one had studied both urban and rural populations, and the other three had studied the urban populations only. The study from the rural setting showed a pooled percentage prevalence of 0.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01-0.20] in children aged 1-18 years; and, four studies conducted in the urban setting showed a pooled percentage prevalence of 0.09 (95% CI 0.02-0.16) in children aged 0-15 years.Conclusion: The scarcity of high-quality population-based epidemiological studies on ASD in India highlights an urgent need to study the burden of ASD in India. The proper acquisition of data related to the prevailing burden of ASD in India would lead to a better development of rehabilitative services in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant growth in the South Asian population in the United States over the past 2 decades, the experiences of South Asian adolescents have remained largely invisible. Guided by a socioecological perspective (American Psychological Association, 2012; García Coll & Marks, 2012), this study examined South Asian adolescents' experiences of acculturative stress and approaches to coping with this stress across home and school contexts. A semistructured interview was completed by 16 participants (9 girls, 7 boys; ages 14-18 years) from different South Asian backgrounds, attending an urban public high school in the Northeastern part of the United States. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the interview data, and revealed 4 broad categories or domains related to participants' experiences as young South Asians in the U.S. These domains include the following: (a) Connection to family, community, and heritage; (b) Challenges to acculturation; (c) Stress accompanying the navigation across cultural contexts; and (d) Coping and resilience. Participants' narratives reflect acculturative stress experienced in home and school contexts which can inhibit psychological well-being and bicultural identity development. The findings have important implications for culturally informed research, intervention, and policy. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most of the Veterans Administration (VA) population is either overweight or obese, which is a serious health concern. Medical weight management visits have traditionally occurred through in-person clinics. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced care delivery to virtual platforms. Methods: We compared weight loss with in-person versus telephone-based medical weight management (lifestyle counseling coupled with pharmacotherapy) delivered by physician and nurse practitioner visits during the pandemic. We designed a program evaluation utilizing a naturalistic (pragmatic) observational study structure, including both newly enrolled and previously established participants in the Minneapolis VA MOVE! program between 2017 and 2021. A "transition" cohort (n = 74) received in-person care from March 2019 to March 2020, and then transitioned to virtual care. A "new start" virtual care cohort ( n  = 149) enrolled after March 2020 was compared to a separate historical group (n = 180) that received in-person care between January 2017 and December 2019. Weight loss was accessed over a 9-month period in both cohorts. Results: Mean weight loss over 9 months was -6.5 ± 18.2 and -2.5 ± 13.3 lbs in the in-person and virtual phases of the transition cohort, respectively, without significant difference between the two phases (p = 0.22). Mean weight loss over 9 months in the new start (virtual) cohort was -14.4 ± 17.0 lbs compared to -16.7 ± 21.0 lbs in the historical cohort, without significant difference between groups (p = 0.44). Conclusions: In our naturalistic study in a single-site VA clinic setting, weight loss with telephone-based medical weight management during the pandemic was comparable to in-person care. These findings are important for veterans living in rural and/or underserved areas.