Awareness of russian doctors about autism spectrum disorders (results of sociological research)

Aim. Identification of awareness in doctors of different specialties (pediatricians, child psychiatrists, neurologists) on a wide range of issues of diagnosis, etiology, therapy of children with ASD.

Methods. There was a survey conducted on the author’s questionnaire. It was answered by 400 doctors working in the large, medium, and small cities and towns in 35 subjects of the Russian Federation, representing all Federal districts. In the sample there were pediatricians (53%), psychiatrists (24.2%), neurologists (14.7%), 8.2% did not specify a specialty. 89.2% of respondents are women and 10.2% are men.

Results. 70% of doctors believe that the number of children with ASD has increased dramatically in recent years. A fifth of respondents found it difficult to answer, 10% said that the number remained the same. The distribution of responses to the question by the profile of specialists indicates the relationship of variables. Neuropathologists and psychiatrists more often chose the answer option “increased sharply” (χ²=32.528, p <0.01). The distribution of different specialists’ opinions on the factors that cause changes in the number of children with ASD in society did not have statistically significant differences. About 40% of pediatricians, neurologists, psychiatrists, and other doctors chose the factors “improvement of quality in diagnostic procedures” and “increasing availability of medical care”; about a third noted — “reducing child mortality and, as a result, increasing diversity”, about a quarter chose “an environmental impact”, “changing the rules of medical statistics”. It is alarming that when asked about the impact of vaccinations on the occurrence of autism, only 46.9% indicated that this is a myth, about 2.8% indicated that autism is a reaction to vaccination, the majority of respondents (50.3%) chose the option that there is not enough data in medicine to confirm or disprove this position.

Conclusions. The results of the study allow us to conclude that it is necessary to increase the awareness of doctors about the current state of research on the problem of ASD. Educational programs are needed taking into account not only medical data but also approaches developed in the social Sciences.