A world where all people with autism can reach their full potential.
A multiyear study funded by the CDC is underway to learn more about factors potentially linked to autism. The Study to Explore Early DevelopmentTrusted Source is a collaboration between six study sites in the United States. These sites are part of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology network and focus on children aged 2–5 years. This ongoing research has already produced several published studies. The latest found an association between ASD and a mother’s exposure to ozone pollution during the third trimester of pregnancy. Researchers also found that exposure to another type of air pollution called particulate matter during an infant’s first year also increased the likelihood of the infant later receiving a diagnosis of ASD.
Pediatricians were randomly selected from four teaching hospital of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran in 2012-13. HCW were randomly selected from 3 urban health care centers in Tehran, Iran. DSM-IV TR criteria for ASD was used to assess knowledge. Participants were asked to rate sixteen statements on beliefs about autism to assess attitude.
Overall, 122 pediatricians and 90 HCWs with mean ± SD age of 36±4.7 yr and 76.4% being female recruited. Pediatricians had significantly higher encounter with autistic patients (18% vs. 10%, P-value=0.06) and parents of autistic child (17% vs. 12%, P-value=0.07). But generally, 209 participants (98.6%) declared that they were familiar with autism. There was no statistically significant difference between study groups in rating DSM-IV TR criteria for ASD as “necessary for diagnosis”. Age, gender and working experience, did not differ between pediatricians or HCW answers (all P-values >0.05). Among HCW participants, higher educational level was associated with higher disagreement about “autistic children is schizophrenic” (P=0.01). Moreover, HCW with higher working experience had higher agreement rate with “autistic children needs special education” statement (P= 0.04).
There are still misconceptions about ASD regarding developmental, cognitive and emotional features in both HCW and pediatricians needed to be educated through national program.