Knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare workers about autism spectrum disorders in Hoa Binh and Thai Binh: results after one-year intervention

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare workers (HCWs) on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) after one year of implementing a community-based communication intervention on ADS (from January 2018 to January 2019) in Hoa Binh and Thai Binh provinces. Methods: This is an interventional study without a control group and pre-post evaluations with 300 HCWs at commune, district and provincial levels in pre-intervention evaluation and 295 participated in post-intervention selected by using multi-stage cluster. Results: The percentages of HCWs who had correct answers for 13/14 questions on ASD knowledge increased after intervention (OR from 1.17 to 4.73), in which the changes were statistically significant in 5 question about red flags for ASD and 3 questions about mistakes in treatment of ASD. The median score of attitudes also increased (17 points vs 16 points, post vs pre-intervention, p<0.05). The results indicated an insignificant change in HCWs practices on ASD early actions (p> 0.05).

Conclusion: The community-based communication intervention improved the knowledge and attitudes of HCWs on ASD and should be continued to evaluate the change in practice of HCWs.