The economic cost of autism spectrum disorders

Background and objectives: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are often associated with increased education, health and social care costs, as well as productivity losses due to disrupted employment for individuals with ASDs and... [ view full abstract ]

Background and objectives: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are often associated with increased education, health and social care costs, as well as productivity losses due to disrupted employment for individuals with ASDs and their carers. Recognising that there is a spectrum of autism disorders, the primary aim of our work is to estimate the economic cost of different types of ASDs.

Methodology: We conducted a national survey of children and adults with ASD and their carers. We collected information on socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, service use by the individual with ASDs, and service use by their families and carers. Service use and cost were estimated per annum by type of service for users and carers. Results were reported separately for children and adults, and for three diagnostic groups (autism, high functioning autism, other ASDs).

Results: We collected data from 950 individuals with ASD, and 787 from carers. For individuals with ASD, the overall annual cost of services was higher for autism than for high functioning autism. The highest cost categories were education for children and social care for adults. For carers of individuals with ASDs, overall costs of services were higher for carers of children than carers of adults. Nearly all costs for carers were attributable to productivity loss.

Conclusions: Understanding the service use and cost for different types of ASDs contributes useful information to support the difficult decisions of policy makers and purchasers.