Factors Associated With Nutritional Status In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are recognized as a developmental disability with increasing newline reported prevalence worldwide (Hansen et al. 2015). As per the latest DSM-V, ASD is an newline umbrella term used to collectively refer to a wide and heterogeneous spectrum of neurobiological newline disorders namely: autistic disorders, Pervasive Development Disorders-Not Otherwise Specified newline (PDD-NOS), Asperger s syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. Individuals with ASD newline are required to exhibit two types of symptoms in order to be diagnosed: Deficits in social newline communication and interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or newline activities (American Psychiatric Association 2013). Studies have shown that feeding problems newline occur in 60% to 90% of young children with autism as against a stark contrast of 25% to 35% in newline neurotypically developing children (Bruns and Thompson 2011, Kodak and Piazza 2008). newline Despite feeding challenges being a common occurrence in children with ASD, there has been no newline clear evidence on the kind of nutrient deficiencies these children have, or their nutritional status. newline In India, childhood malnutrition is already an endemic public health problem. The glaring dearth newline of research in India on nutrient adequacy and growth of children with ASD, needs attention. newline The purpose of this study was to assess the nutritional status of children with ASD belonging to newline two different age groups (3-6 years and 7-11 years) and understand various factors associated newline with it like: mealtime behaviours, sensory integration, feeding styles of mothers. The study was newline conducted in Mumbai. A sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted for the same, where newline Phase I was the quantitative part of the study, and Phase II was the qualitative part of the study. newline The quantitative approach was used for data on sensory integration, mealtime behaviour, dietary newline intake and anthropometric measurements of children. Data was collected from 146 mother- newline children pairs. Convenience and snowball sampling were used to