The sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with an autism spectrum disorder in the oriental region of Morocco

Abstract

Background The objective of our study is to assess the clinical profile of autistic children in Morocco and the cultural perception of their parents. We collect data with a standard questionnaire on 130 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They were recruited from child psychiatry consultation in the hospital for mental health from 2017 to 2019. This questionnaire assesses the socio-demographic characteristics of children and parents, personal and family medical history, the progress of pregnancy and childbirth. For each child, we determined the developmental age, signs of autism, the comorbidities, the nature of the treatment, the evolution. We complete the examination with parents' perception and attitude towards autism. Results The age of diagnosis was 3.4 years. The sex ratio in our study was 4.6. A low rate of children screened by general practitioners (4.6%). Language impairment was the main reason for the consultation, followed by social withdrawal and stereotypies. 75% of the children benefited from multidisciplinary care. The autism age of screening was significantly lower among families belonging to medium and high socioeconomic status (F = 11.233; p = 0.001). Acceptance of diagnosis was present in 83% of cases, while 73.6% were involved in the care. Only 24% of parents thought that autism etiology is genetic, 75.4% notice improvement with age, and 80.2% consider it a source of family suffering. Conclusions These findings underscore the sociodemographic and clinical profile of children with ASD in the oriental region in Morocco. It could be relevant for early screening, intervention, and guidance for families with children having these conditions.

Assessment of knowledge,attitude and practices of parents having children with autism

“…Regarding to the family income of the studied sample, present study shows that; more than half of the parents see that their income is exactly enough to their requirements. this is may be due to the spend a lot of to treat their children suffered from autism and because most of the mothers are house wife so that the family income exactly sufficient for the family's needs, this finding in agreement with Oneib et al, [32]who conducted a study among 130 children with autism and their parents followed in child psychiatry consultation of the hospital for the mental health for ASD for approximately 2 years, found that the family income and socioeconomic status of the family was mild or enough to the family needs.…”

“…this result was disagree with Oneib et al, [32]who carried out a study on 130 parents of children having autism and found that the children with autism was co morbid with other organic and mental illness.…”

Anthropometric Profile, Overweight/Obesity Prevalence, and Socioeconomic Impact in Moroccan Children Aged 6–12 Years Old with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Particularly in emerging countries such as Morocco, data on ASD children remain scarce [3,10,[20][21][22]. While there are available data on ASD obesity among young Moroccan children under the age of 12 residing abroad [23,24], the prevalence of ASD within Morocco itself remains elusive.…”

Machine learning-based ABA treatment recommendation and personalization for autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study

“…Due to the established efficacy of RS and a desire to overcome the limitations of the traditional ABA intervention model, we conducted a first-of-its-kind pilot study evaluating the effectiveness of RS with treatment personalization capabilities. We used assessment records, sociodemographic data such as age and gender [ 33 , 34 ], and 6-month longitudinal treatment data from 29 ASD children.The paper is organized with a Literature review in Sect. 2 , followed by a Materials and methods in Sect.…”