Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 9;19(1):250.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-019-2672-8.

Parental satisfaction and perception of Progress in influencing the Practice of complementary health approaches in children with autism: a cross sectional survey from Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Jun Jean Ong  1
Affiliations

Parental satisfaction and perception of Progress in influencing the Practice of complementary health approaches in children with autism: a cross sectional survey from Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Jun Jean Ong. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: Parents' use of complementary health approaches (CHA) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are common despite the uncertain evidence of its benefit. Parents often adopt CHA due to dissatisfaction with conventional treatment. This study aimed to examine parents' satisfaction with ASD treatment and their perception of progress in their child's development. Parents' use of CHA among children with ASD and the factors related were also evaluated.

Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 48 parents of children with ASD at a single tertiary referral hospital in Malaysia. Correlation analysis was used to explore associations between parental satisfaction scores, perception of progress scores and use of CHA.

Results: Use of CHA was reported by parents for 35.4% of children with ASD in the sample. Parents who were less satisfied with conventional treatment and parents who perceived poorer progress in their child's development were more likely to use CHA. Strong positive relationship was found between parent satisfaction with ASD treatment scores and parent perception of progress scores, which indicates that parents who were satisfied with treatment were more likely to perceive greater progress in their child's development. Improvement in child's progress was most appreciated by parents in their child's behavior (85.5%), social skills (83.3%) and motor skills (77.1%).

Conclusion: The use of CHA was common among children with ASD. Parents were more likely to practice CHA when they were less satisfied with conventional treatment and perceived poorer progress. A larger multicenter study is required to further explore the practice of CHA among children with ASD throughout Malaysia.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Complementary health approaches; Parent satisfaction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declare that she has no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Complementary Health Approaches (CHA) Among Children with ASD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hoffman Leon. Book Essay on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-5. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 2014;62(1):125–147. doi: 10.1177/0003065114524985. - DOI
    1. Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) Ministry of Health (MOH), Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children and Adolescents. 2014. Available from: http://www.acadmed.org.my
    1. Divan G, Hamdani SU, Vajartkar V, Minhas A, Taylor C, Aldred C, et al. Adapting an evidence-based intervention for autism spectrum disorder for scaling up in resource-constrained settings: the development of the PASS intervention in South Asia. Global Health Action [Internet] Informa UK Limited. 2015;8(1):27278. doi: 10.3402/gha.v8.27278. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burrell TL, Parents BJJ. Involvement in ASD treatment: what is their role? Cogn Behav Pract. 2012;19(3):423–432. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpra.2011.04.003. - DOI
    1. Edlund Mark J., Young Alexander S., Kung Fuan Yue, Sherbourne Cathy D., Wells Kenneth B. Does Satisfaction Reflect the Technical Quality of Mental Health Care? Health Services Research. 2003;38(2):631–645. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.00137. - DOI - PMC - PubMed