Analysis of the medical and social effectiveness of the implementation of the model of comprehensive support for children with autism spectrum disorders

Introduction. Since 2019, the public project “Mental Health” having been implemented in the Volga Federal District (VFD), comprehensive assistance measures were implemented for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Purpose of the study is to evaluate the medical and social effectiveness of measures implemented during the managerial experiment on early detection and support of ASD children at the regional level. Materials and methods. The research is based on an managerial experiment to introduce a model of comprehensive care for ASD childreт. Statistical processing and comparative analysis of data obtained from the regions of the VFD within the framework of annual monitoring for 2019-2022 was carried out using parametric and nonparametric analysis methods. Results. From 2019 to 2022, in the regions of the VFD, the overall prevalence of ASD increased more than doubled and amounted to 0.19% of the child population. In 2022, the average prevalence of ASD among children in regions implementing comprehensive measures to help ASD children was 0.23%, which is statistically significantly higher than the average for regions not participating in the Project (0.09%). From 2020 to 2022 the proportion of children with disabilities due to ASD decreased from 56.6% to 43.18%. By the end of 2022 ranged the indicators of child disability due to ASD from 0.5 to 1.2 per 1000 children depending on the date of entry of the regions of the VFD into the Project. Research limitations. The study was carried out on the basis of aggregated summary information without using primary data. Conclusions. The study showed the effectiveness of the managerial model of comprehensive support of ASD children. Indicators characterizing the prevalence of ASD among the child population and disability of children due to ASD correlate with managerial measures implemented in the regions for the early detection of mental development disorders that can be considered as criteria for evaluating their effectiveness.