PARENT AND CHILD HEALTH UTILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Purpose: To derive utility values associated with the health of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their parents, and describe how these utility values vary across different severity levels of ASD.

Methods: Parents of children with and without ASD were selected from a nationally representative research panel to complete an internet survey.  All survey respondents answered a series of time trade-off (TTO) questions to value their own current health state and their child’s current health state.   Respondents were also asked socio-demographic and health questions regarding themselves and their child.  Parents of children with ASD were asked to report the severity of their child’s ASD symptoms.  We calculated utility values from each TTO amount.  Regression analyses estimated the change in child health utility associated with ASD diagnosis and increasing symptom severity.  Separate regression analyses evaluated the change in parent health utility associated with having a child with ASD.  These regression analyses controlled for respondent socio-demographic characteristics, child’s gender, age, insurance status and other non-ASD related illnesses, as well as the presence of other children in the household. 

Results: We received responses from 69% of parents.  Nine percent of respondents were eliminated from the analysis sample due to missing or invalid responses, leaving a final analysis sample size of 255 (135 parents of children with ASD and 120 parents of children without ASD).  In adjusted analyses, having any form of ASD was significantly associated with a 0.26 (95% CI: 0.16-0.36) decrease in child health utility, compared to children without ASD.  Having a child with ASD was significantly associated with 0.07 (95% CI: 0.02-0.12) decrease in parent health utility, compared to parents of children without ASD.  The highest severity level of ASD was significantly associated with a 0.31 (95% CI: 0.12-0. 52) reduction in child health utility and a 0.18 (95% CI: 0.06-0.32) reduction in parent health utility.

Conclusions: ASD has a large impact on child health utility values, and this impact is influenced by the severity of the child’s symptoms.  In addition, having a child with ASD is associated with a significant decrease in parent health utility.