Primary Menu

Education, Events, Publication

Funding & Recognition

Childhood Opportunity Index as a Predictor of Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis in Utah

Year: 2023


Presenter Name: Zachary Tripp

Description
Significant research has shown that health and well-being are directly correlated to childhood poverty and socioeconomic status. Racial inequities exist when it comes to age of diagnosis and service access for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This is the first study to date to examine the impact of neighborhood level resources and conditions on access to autism services using the Childhood Opportunity Index 2.0 (ChOI 2.0). The primary goal of this study is to examine whether local-level child opportunity can serve as a predictive factor for diagnosis of ASD in the state of Utah. This study included 3,500 unique children seen at the Child Development Clinic from 2018- 2022 (1,030 female; 2,469 male) 194 of whom received an ASD diagnosis and 3,306 who did not. We geocoded residential addresses obtained from families in Utah and linked each location with census tract-level ChOI data. Child Opportunity Index 2.0 is a publicly available surveillance tool that incorporates a total of twenty-nine traditional and novel attributes of neighborhood conditions split into three categories. We analyzed the distribution of ASD diagnoses across the sample. A logistic regression was performed to ascertain the effects of ChOI on the likelihood of an ASD diagnosis. This research is important because it can highlight diagnostic differences based on opportunity. Further research can be done to determine the causes for the disparities in order to develop possible interventions to promote early detection of autism in all children.
University / Institution: University of Utah
Type: Poster
Format: In Person
Presentation #A81
SESSION A (9:00-10:30AM)
Area of Research: Health & Medicine
Faculty Mentor: Michele Villalobos