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. 2023 Jun 2;13(6):903.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci13060903.

Who Is Attending? The Role of Child Ethnicity and Maternal Demographics in Research Engagement and Early Identification of Autism

Ifrah Abdullahi  1 , Nancy Sadka  1 , Melissa Gilbert  1 , Josephine Barbaro  1   2
Affiliations

Who Is Attending? The Role of Child Ethnicity and Maternal Demographics in Research Engagement and Early Identification of Autism

Ifrah Abdullahi et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Inequitable access to early autism developmental surveillance is evident globally. However, there is limited research examining autism diagnosis, ethnicity, and community profiles when engaging in research for the early identification of autism. We aimed to understand the relationships between child ethnicity, maternal demographics, and autism diagnosis, comparing retrospective data from the 2016 census for eight local government areas (LGAs) in Victoria, Australia. Maternal and child health (MCH) nurses monitored 13,511 children under 42 months for the early signs of autism using the Social Attention Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) and SACS-R Preschool (SACS-PR) tools during well-child checks. Of these, 340 children with a "high likelihood" of autism attended developmental assessments. Participants' maternal ethnicity ('European maternal ethnicity', EME; 'non-European maternal ethnicity,' N-EME; 'mixed maternal ethnicity,' MME'), socioeconomic factors, and autism prevalence were compared to their LGA community. Results indicated that study participants were representative of their LGA communities, though bi- and multilingualism was higher in our cohort. Differences in current maternal employment, maternal education, annual family income, and autism prevalence were found between the N-EME, EME, and MME groups. Our study found that research engagement was driven by maternal education, maternal employment, and annual family income, and further research is required to understand these relationships.

Keywords: autism; child; developmental surveillance; ethnicity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Population country of birth (Australian 2016 census) and maternal country of birth (Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data) by local government area. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Population country of birth (Australian 2016 census) and maternal country of birth (Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data) by local government area. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Population country of birth (Australian 2016 census) and maternal country of birth (Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data) by local government area. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Population country of birth (Australian 2016 census) and maternal country of birth (Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data) by local government area. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Languages spoken at home by local government area according to the Australian 2016 census and the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Languages spoken at home by local government area according to the Australian 2016 census and the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Languages spoken at home by local government area according to the Australian 2016 census and the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Languages spoken at home by local government area according to the Australian 2016 census and the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data. Note: Census; Australian 2016 census data. SACS-R+PR; Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised + Preschool data.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Flowchart of the study inclusion criteria.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Child ethnicity grouping according to the combination of maternal ethnicities.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Country of birth for participating local government areas (from Australian 2016 census data) compared to SACS-R+PR data.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Overall languages spoken at home for participating local government areas (from Australian 2016 census data) compared to SACS-R+PR data.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Percentages of children referred, attended, declined, and diagnosed per local government areas.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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