Prevention and Management of Obesity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Primary Care Pediatricians

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at high risk for being overweight and obese. Little is known about how obesity in children with ASD is being addressed in primary care. This article reports findings from a survey completed by 327 general pediatricians, which included a fictional clin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2018-07, Vol.48 (7), p.2408-2417
Main Authors: Walls, Morgan, Broder-Fingert, Sarabeth, Feinberg, Emily, Drainoni, Mari-Lynn, Bair-Merritt, Megan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
At Risk Persons
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder - complications
Autistic children
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Body weight
Body Weight Maintenance
Child
Child and School Psychology
Childhood obesity
Children
Counseling
Dietitians
Female
Health Promotion
High risk
Humans
Male
Neurosciences
Obesity
Original Paper
Overweight
Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology
Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control
Pediatric Obesity - therapy
Pediatricians
Pediatrics
Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Physicians
Prevention programs
Preventive Medicine
Primary care
Primary Health Care - methods
Psychology
Public Health
Self Efficacy
Surveys and Questionnaires
Weight control
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at high risk for being overweight and obese. Little is known about how obesity in children with ASD is being addressed in primary care. This article reports findings from a survey completed by 327 general pediatricians, which included a fictional clinical vignette and Likert-scales assessing attitudes, practices, self-efficacy, and barriers to obesity management. Although the majority of respondents agreed pediatricians should be the main providers to manage obesity in children with ASD, few reported receiving adequate training to do so. Pediatricians were more likely to refer to developmental-behavioral pediatricians and dietitians for a child with ASD compared to a child without ASD. Higher self-efficacy was associated with increased weight-related counseling frequency by pediatricians.
ISSN:0162-3257
1573-3432
DOI:10.1007/s10803-018-3494-0