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Emergency Department Use Among Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

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Abstract

A cross-sectional analyses using Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (2006–2011) was conducted to examine the trends, type of ED visits, and mean total ED charges for adults aged 22–64 years with and without ASD (matched 1:3). Around 0.4 % ED visits (n = 25,527) were associated with any ASD and rates of such visits more than doubled from 2006 to 2011 (2549–6087 per 100,000 admissions). Adults with ASD visited ED for: primary psychiatric disorder (15 %ASD vs. 4.2 %noASD), primary non-psychiatric disorder (16 %ASD vs. 14 %noASD), and any injury (24 %ASD vs. 28 %noASD). Mean total ED charges for adults with ASD were 2.3 times higher than for adults without ASD. Findings emphasize the need to examine the extent of frequent ED use in this population.

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Author contributions

The current study is part of a doctoral dissertation project conducted by RV on healthcare services utilization and expenditures among adults with ASD. RV conceived the study objectives, conducted the statistical analyses, and formulated the first draft of manuscript. SM contributed to refining of study objectives, study design, manuscript development and revisions. US participated in identifying appropriate statistical analyses, conducting analyses, interpretation of data and results, along with manuscript submissions and revisions.

Funding

The current study was partially funded by IDeA-CTR award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, U54GM104942. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or policy or position of West Virginia University (WVU) or any other affiliated organizations.

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  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy, West Virginia University, 1 Medical Center Drive, Morgantown, WV, 26506 9510, USA

    Rini Vohra, Suresh Madhavan & Usha Sambamoorthi

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  1. Rini Vohra
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  2. Suresh Madhavan
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  3. Usha Sambamoorthi
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Correspondence to Rini Vohra.

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There was no requirement of an informed consent, since the discharge-level data is publicly available and did not involve direct participation of patients. The primary author of the study has completed a data user agreement with the HCUP-NEDS, AHRQ to obtain the de-identified dataset.

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Vohra, R., Madhavan, S. & Sambamoorthi, U. Emergency Department Use Among Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). J Autism Dev Disord 46, 1441–1454 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2692-2

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