Embedded Files
individuals in the general population. Despite the fact that children with autism are associated with higher healthcare utilization rates, they experience poorer access to healthcare services and medical homes compared to normally developing children.15 In addition, children with ASD experience disparities with respect to accessing early diagnostic and intervention or support services. Even though, autism can be diagnosed as early as 12-months of age most children with autism are usually diagnosed at about four years or later.16 It is believed that socioeconomic status, race, neighborhood disadvantage and culture play a major role in the disparities in ASD diagnosis. For instance, African American children receive their first autism diagnosis at least one and a half years later than their European American counterparts do. Similarly, children from households with poor socioeconomic status and/or from high disadvantaged neighborhoods,17 are also more likely not to be given an autism diagnosis on time. Worse still in resource limited nations Cameroon inclusive, most children with autism are not being diagnosis. In addition, there exist disparities in the availability of and access to autism treatment services. For example, children from poor socioeconomic background have access to fewer hours of autism treatment services, while others particularly from less developed countries such as Cameroon may not even have access to treatment services. This may result in increased adverse physical health outcomes in the lives of this special group of individuals in the future.18 Furthermore, parents of poor socioeconomic status having children with ASD stated poorer access to care for their children; they do not get early and continuous access to care. Again, others have reported disparities in the quality of healthcare and access to general and specialist medical services.7 Some studies have reported disparities among parents of children with autism in terms of getting referrals as required. Literature reveals that most often some children with autism do not have access to specialist care especially children from developing nations such as Cameroon, African American and Latino among others. For instance, a study revealed that children with autism from Latino and African American experience lower rates of neurologic screening and scarcely see gastroenterologists, nutritionists, neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists.19 The situation is even worse in some African countries like Cameroon where most healthcare provider are not aware of autism and its associated health conditions and the available specialists are only found in urban areas. Moreover, there are disparities with respect to gender and geographical location.20 Literature holds that among children with autism having similar clinical and/or health service utilization needs females are more likely to receive psychiatric or emergency department services than their male counterparts are. Talking about geography, it is known that children with autism living in rural areas, especially those with multiple comorbidities, are more likely to travel to urban settings to use emergency department services than those found in urban areas. This is due to the lack of availability of specialist services in rural areas. PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO REDUCING HEALTH AND HEALTH SERVICE INEQUALITIES AMONG PERSONS WITH AUTISM The Public Health Ministry or Sector of every nation has a vital role to play in promoting, improving and maintaining the health of the general population and ensure equity in health status for everyone including children with disabilities. As mentioned earlier in addition to their disabilities children with developmental disabilities frequently experience other chronic diseases and problems.21 Hence, the healthcare needs of children with autism is of paramount importance to the public health department since this group within the special population is highly vulnerable but hardly access existing healthcare services. Therefore, it is vital for every nation to meet the delicate health needs of persons with autism especially children. As it is mandatory for them to equally access healthcare services and receive quality
Report abuse