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
. 2025 Feb;55(2):605-619.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-06229-7. Epub 2024 Jan 17.

Barriers to Healthcare for Latinx Autistic Children and Adolescents

Luke P Grosvenor #  1 , Ryan J Cohen #  1   2 , Nancy P Gordon  1 , Maria L Massolo  1 , Hilda J Cerros  1 , Cathleen K Yoshida  1 , Jennifer L Ames  1 , Lisa A Croen  3
Affiliations

Barriers to Healthcare for Latinx Autistic Children and Adolescents

Luke P Grosvenor et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: To understand the ways in which autistic Latinx children experience disparities in diagnosis, healthcare, and receipt of specialty services.

Methods: 417 individuals who identified as Latinx caregivers of autistic children who were members of the same integrated healthcare system in Northern California were surveyed. Responses were analyzed using the child's insurance coverage (Government or Commercial) and caregiver's primary language (Spanish or English).

Results: Compared to the commercially-insured, government-insured participants accessed several services at a higher rate and were less likely to cite the high cost of co-pays as a barrier.

Conclusion: There were no significant differences in service access by language status, but Spanish speakers were more likely to cite health literacy as a barrier to receiving care.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Developmental Disabilities; Healthcare Disparities; Latino Children; Service Utilization.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing Interests: All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Ethics Approval: All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All participants provided written informed consent prior to the interview. All study procedures were approved by the Kaiser Permanente Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ASD service use by type of insurance. *indicates significance (p < 0.05)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aponte-Rivera, V., Dunlop, B. W., Ramirez, C., Kelley, M. E., Schneider, R., Blastos, B., Larson, J., Mercado, F., Mayberg, H., & Craighead, W. E. (2014). Enhancing hispanic participation in mental health clinical research: Development of a spanish-speaking depression research site. Depression and Anxiety, 31(3), 258–267. 10.1002/da.22153. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Britigan, D. H., Murnan, J., & Rojas-Guyler, L. (2009). A qualitative study examining latino functional health literacy levels and sources of health information. Journal of Community Health, 34(3), 222–230. 10.1007/s10900-008-9145-1. - PubMed
    1. Brook, R. H., Keeler, E. B., Lohr, K. N., Newhouse, J. P., Ware, J. E., Rogers, W. H., & Reboussin, D. (2006). The health insurance experiment. RAND Health.
    1. Buescher, A. V., Cidav, Z., Knapp, M., & Mandell, D. S. (2014). Costs of autism spectrum disorders in the United Kingdom and the United States. JAMA Pediatr, 168(8), 721–728. 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.210. - PubMed
    1. Chlebowski, C., Magana, S., Wright, B., & Brookman-Frazee, L. (2018). Implementing an intervention to address challenging behaviors for autism spectrum disorder in publicly-funded mental health services: Therapist and parent perceptions of delivery with latinx families. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol, 24(4), 552–563. 10.1037/cdp0000215. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources