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MCH Research Program

December 18, 2014

Through Title V of the Social Security Act, HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has a long and rich history of implementing programs that include but are not limited to services, research, training, and system infrastructure building for ensuring the delivery of health care and related services to and promoting the well-being of all mothers, infants, children, adolescents, and children with special health care needs. In 2008, with funding through the Combating Autism Act authority, HRSA's MCHB developed programs to address autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities by: increasing awareness; reducing barriers to screening and diagnosis; advancing the evidence base on effective interventions for children and adolescents with ASD and other developmental disabilities; promoting evidence-based guideline development for interventions; and training professionals to utilize valid and reliable screening tools to diagnose or rule out ASD and other developmental disabilities, and to provide evidence-based interventions.

 The MCH Research Program plays a critical role in these efforts by supporting both research networks and investigator-initiated research projects to determine the evidence-based practices for interventions and to advance best practices for early identification. Consistent with HRSA's mission as the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services and improving health equity, many of these MCH research projects focus on the unique and unaddressed needs of these vulnerable and underserved populations, by considering ethnic/racial, cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, literacy and geographic (e.g., rural/urban) diversity of individuals for whom there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of interventions or for whom disparities in early identification of ASD and other developmental disabilities exist.

The portfolio of MCHB Autism Intervention Research Programs funded since 2008 includes the following projects:

• Five National Research Networks, which include: Autism Intervention Research Networks on Behavioral Health (AIR-B Network) and Physical Health (AIR-P Network) that focus on: intervention research, tool validation for interventions, guideline development, dissemination of network findings and activities to the research community, health care professionals and service providers, communities, families of children and adolescents with ASD and other developmental disabilities and the public, and promote the transfer of findings on effective interventions into practice; Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet) to advance clinical practice, optimize health and functional status of children with developmental and behavioral concerns and disorders, including children with ASD and other developmental disabilities; MCH Research Network on Promoting Healthy Weight (HW-RN) to improve our understanding of factors contributing to the possible increased risk of overweight and obesity among children with ASD and other special health care needs; MCH Health Care Transitions Research Network for Youth and Young Adults with ASD (HCT-RN) to advance the field with research designed to improve health care transitions and promote an optimal transition to adulthood among youth and young adults with ASD, including optimal physical, psychosocial, educational, and vocational outcomes.

• Twenty eight field-initiated R40 Autism Intervention Research grants to determine the evidence-based practices for interventions and to advance best practices for the early identification of ASD and other developmental disabilities to improve the health and well-being of these children and adolescents.

• Seventeen field-initiated R40 Secondary Data Analysis Studies to determine the evidence-based practices for interventions and to advance best practices for the early identification of ASD and other developmental disabilities, utilizing exclusively the analysis of existing secondary data.

The research grantees have conducted studies addressing topics such as the efficacy of ASD interventions, early identification of ASD in minority populations, family well-being, and transition, have utilized innovative technology to address barriers in access to early intervention for rural, underserved children with ASD, and developed consensus-based guidelines and tools to support families and professionals in providing treatment for children with ASD. To date, over one hundred (100) peer-reviewed manuscripts have been published by the research grantees.

More information about all of these MCH research projects can be found at: http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/autism/interventionresearch.html .

With the recent passage of the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support Act of 2014 (Autism CARES Act of 2014), the MCH Research Program plans to announce the availability of Fiscal Year 2015 funding for both the AIR-B and AIR-P Networks as well as the R40 Autism SDAS program. We encourage you to sign up for our listserve (www.mchb.hrsa.gov/research) to receive email alerts when these announcements are available, expected in early 2015!