International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 11, Issue 3 (March 2024), Pages: 102-108

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 Original Research Paper

Living with autism: Quality of life assessment for young adults with autism in Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): 

 Aljoud Sulaiman Algazlan 1, *, Tarfa Rashed Alsharidi 1, Banan Sameer Alqady 1, Maha Fahad Alghamdi 1, Mayasem Isa Alhazmi 1, Nada Ismail Babelli 1, Laila Y. Alayadhi 2

 Affiliation(s):

 1College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
 2Department of Physiology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

 Full text

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5648-8832

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2024.03.011

 Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) impacts the future health outcomes of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Past research, although limited, has shown that people with ASD often experience a lower quality of life. Yet, there's not much research focusing on the quality of life of young adults with autism, especially in Saudi Arabia, where it appears no studies have assessed the QoL of adults with autism. This study aims to evaluate and compare the quality of life between young adults with ASD and those without (a control group) in Saudi Arabia to pinpoint areas that could be improved. The study included 439 participants, with 107 being adults with autism and 332 without (a 1:3 ratio). An Arabic translation of the World Health Organization (WHO) QoL short version (WHOQOL-BREF) was used for assessment. The average age of participants with ASD was 24.82 years, with the average age for diagnosis and starting treatment being around 7.4 and 8.28 years, respectively. Those with ASD reported a significantly lower quality of life (1.68) in all areas compared to the control group (3.96), especially in social relationships (average score=27.01). A negative correlation was found between the age at diagnosis and at starting treatment with overall QoL, suggesting that a delay in diagnosis is associated with a lower quality of life. The study reveals that adults with ASD in Saudi Arabia have a lower QoL in all areas compared to the general population, indicating that early diagnosis and intervention could improve their quality of life. These results emphasize the need for policy changes to better support individuals with ASD in improving their quality of life.

 © 2024 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Autism, Quality of life, WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, Delayed diagnosis, Early intervention

 Article history

 Received 11 October 2023, Received in revised form 10 February 2024, Accepted 25 February 2024

 Funding 

This project was funded by the National Plan for Science Technology and Innovation (MAARIFAH), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (award number 08-MED 510-02).

 Acknowledgment 

The authors thank the WHO for providing the WHO QOL‐BREF and manual in support of this study. The authors are very grateful to families of adults with ASD for their participation in the study.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical consideration

Ethical approval was obtained from the International Review Board at the College of Medicine, King Saud University (Ref No.: 21/0628/IRB - CMED-305/F3 [2021-2022]).

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Algazlan AS, Alsharidi TR, Alqady BS, Alghamdi MF, Alhazmi MI, Babelli NI, and Alayadhi LY (2024). Living with autism: Quality of life assessment for young adults with autism in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 11(3): 102-108

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 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

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