Het aantal symptomen als verklaring voor de vertekening in probleemherkenning van ASS bij etnische minderheden?

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that an ethnic minority background hinders clinical detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). If symptoms of ASD are not recognised by a health-care professional (HCP), the diagnostic process is unlikely to be initiated. This may lead to delayed or missed diagnosis, and in turn, under-represented of ethnic minorities in health-care facilities specialized in ASD. Recognition of ASD appears to be influenced by various different child and HCP factors, however, it is unknown whether the number of symptoms a child presents influences recognition of ASD in children from ethnic minorities. This study examined the influence of number of symptoms of ASD on HCP recognition of the problem in children with a Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan ethnicity. HCPs (n=521) evaluated a series of online vignettes describing children with ASD. Vignettes varied by ethnicity and described few or many ASD symptoms. Results show that HCP’s did not differ in the recognition of ASD between the ethnic groups, but their recognition was dependent on the number of symptoms presented by the child. In first instance, these results show that there is room for improvement in the recognition of ASD in all ethnic groups in this study. Furthermore, children’s symptoms of ASD may be overlooked when few symptoms are present. Implications are discussed.