Measuring Health, Function, and Social Well-being in Adults on the Autism Spectrum
Project Description:
Individuals on the autism spectrum experience a services cliff when they transition to adulthood, and have poor health and social outcomes over the life course. In response, the National Institute of Mental Health has highly prioritized services research to improve life outcomes for autistic adults. The lack of validated patient- reported outcome measures (PROMs) for use with autistic adults is a significant barrier to conducting high- quality services research with this population. The Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) has been conducting community based participatory research (CBPR) in partnership with autistic adults, family members, and services professionals for over twelve years. We have used a collaborative process to adapt survey instruments to be accessible to autistic adults with diverse characteristics. More work is needed to create a full package of high-priority PROMs and to rigorously assess their psychometric properties. Our long-term goal is to improve life outcomes for autistic adults. The objective of this proposal is to use a CBPR approach to create and test a package of PROMs for evaluating the effectiveness of services interventions for autistic adults across multiple real-world settings. We will achieve our objective by meeting the following specific aims: 1) to collaboratively create the Autism Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (AutPROM) Toolbox; 2) to psychometrically test the AutPROM Toolbox measures at baseline and assess expected distributions; and 3) to assess the instruments? sensitivity in detecting change and explore factors that may be associated with change in outcomes over time. We will use a modified Delphi process to identify constructs and measures to include in the AutPROM Toolbox. We will then work with our diverse Community Council to collaboratively adapt instruments, as needed.
Keyword(s):
autistic adults, IDD, ASD, transition
Core Function(s):
Performing Research or Evaluation
Area of Emphasis
Health-Related Activities
Target Audience:
Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Adults with Disabilities
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Specific Groups
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
National
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
