Assessing the level of knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among medical consultants

Abstract

Background: There has been a worldwide reported increase in the prevalence of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is also an international recognition of the value of early diagnosis and intervention of children with ASD. A lack was identified in the literature in KSA regarding assessing ASD knowledge among medical consultants. Aims: firstly, to assess ASD knowledge among medical consultants in KSA. Secondly, to investigate if there is any differences between medical consultants based on their years of experience and subspecialties. Method: KCAHW questionnaire was utilized to collect data from 53 consultants at a university hospital in KSA. Results: the level of ASD knowledge among medical consultants in KSA was low. Moreover, years of practice as consultants were discovered to be non-significantly correlating with ASD knowledge. Finally, the level of ASD knowledge was significantly affected by subspecialties in all the domains of KCAHW. Conclusion: more formal training on ASD and the integration of it in medical curriculum is needed to increase the level of knowledge in medical staff for early and better detection of ASD.

Nurses’ Knowledge and Self-Efficacy with Autism Disorders in Healthcare Settings of Saudi Arabia

“…Moreover, Salama (2017) found weak correlations between the number of years of clinical experience and the Domain 2 (Delay or total lack of development of spoken language) score, as well as between previous experience in autism and total, Domain 2, and Domain 3 (Restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviours and interests) scores. Hemdi (2020) similarly found that ASD knowledge of medical consultants was influenced by their years of practice. Overall, this suggests that it is not easy to predict whether demographic factors can influence knowledge of ASD in healthcare workers.…”

“…This changes for items 14, 15, 19 (and 20) and becomes 0 for Don't know/Yes, and 1 for No. The KCAHW has previously been utilised in studies set in the KSA to assess the extent of ASD knowledge of medical consultants, family medicine residents, healthcare workers, and family physicians (Hayat et al, 2019;Hemdi, 2020;Masarit et al, 2022;Salama, 2017). Participants are considered to have "poor" knowledge if the overall mean score is between 0 and 6, "good" if between 7 and 12, and "excellent" if the score is between 13 and 19 (Ghulman et al, 2017).…”