Md Golam Hasnain, Monjura Akter.
The Relation of Socio-economic Factors with Autism among Children: A Study in an Urban Area of Bangladesh.
J Pioneering Med Students Jan ;4(1):11-3.

BACKGROUND: Bangladesh is a developing nation and despite economic constraints, Bangladesh has a vision for all round growth and intends to enter the group of developing nations by the year 2020. To achieve these ambitious targets, all sections of society, not only disabled people, but also people with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have to be included in the process of developing the nation. This research is a descriptive cross sectional study and aims to find the socio-economic profile of persons with ASD and to correlate the condition of autism with the socio-economic profile. METHODS: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in two autism schools in Dhaka City, Bangladesh from January to June, 2012. All the subjects of the study are the parents of autistic children who were educated and living in Dhaka. RESULTS: The highest numbers of autistic children were aged 7-9 years (32%) and 4-6 years (28%); 78% were male and 22% were female children. With respect to birth order, 58% were first born and 33% were second born. Parents’ education and occupation were associated with this disorder but family income was not. Autistic children were more likely to have illiterate parents (32%) followed by parents with primary level education (21%). The majority of the patients (87%) were from nuclear families and 66% were from urban areas. On the other hand, only 38% of the childrenwent to school regularly. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the relationship of autism with birth order, parent’s education, economic status and family status. We also found that autistic children were less likely to attend a school.oa.html#sthash.0I0RoC6p.dpuf

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