Patterns of Intervention Utilization Among School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Findings from a Multi-Site Research Consortium.

When designing and interpreting results from clinical trials evaluating treatments for children on the autism spectrum, a complicating factor is that most children receive a range of concurrent treatments. Thus, it is important to better understand the types and hours of interventions that participants typically receive as part of standard of care, as well as to understand the child, family, and geographic factors that are associated with different patterns of service utilization. In this multi-site study, we interviewed 280 caregivers of 6-to-11-year-old school-aged children on the autism spectrum about the types and amounts of interventions their children received in the prior 6 weeks. Reported interventions were coded as " evidence-based practice" or " other interventions," reflecting the level of empirical support. Results indicated that children received a variety of interventions with varying levels of empirical evidence and a wide range of hours (0 to 79.3 hours/week). Children with higher autism symptom levels, living in particular states, and who identified as non-Hispanic received more evidence-based intervention hours. Higher parental education level related to more hours of other interventions. Children who were younger, had lower cognitive ability, and with higher autism symptom levels received a greater variety of interventions overall. Thus, based on our findings, it would seem prudent when designing clinical trials to take into consideration a variety of factors including autism symptom levels, age, cognitive ability, ethnicity, parent education and geographic location. Future research should continue to investigate the ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic influences on school-aged intervention services.
Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors [AS, JK, SF, MSD, JIN, CN, SW, RB, SJ, KC, CS, AN, JD] declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Dr. Dawson is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Janssen Research and Development, Akili Interactive, Inc, LabCorp, Inc, Roche Pharmaceutical Company, and Tris Pharma, and is a consultant to Apple, Gerson Lehrman Group, Guidepoint Global, Inc, and is CEO of DASIO, LLC. Dr. Dawson has stock interests in Neuvana, Inc. Dr. Dawson has the following patent No. 10,912,801 and patent applications: 62,757,234, 25,628,402, and 62,757,226. Dr. Dawson has developed technology, data, and/or products that have been licensed to Apple, Inc. and Cryocell, Inc. and Dawson and Duke University have benefited financially. James C. McPartland consults with Customer Value Partners, Bridgebio, Determined Health, and BlackThorn Therapeutics, has received research funding from Janssen Research and Development, serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Pastorus and Modern Clinics, and receives royalties from Guilford Press, Lambert, and Springer. Frederick Shic consults for Janssen Research and Development, Roche Pharmaceuticals, and BlackThorn Therapeutics.