The Quality of Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in East Azarbaijan Province

Abstract

Introduction & Objective: "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the developmental nerve disorders that is known to affect social interactions and behaviors, interests, and duplicate movements." This study aims to evaluate the quality of delivered services for children with autism spectrum disorders in East Azarbaijan, Iran. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2019. To collect data, 112 parents of children with autism spectrum disorders was participated from four privatein Tabriz and a center in Ajabshir affiliate to Welfare Organization, an exceptional education school in Tabriz and a center affiliated to university Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, a provider of educational care services. Service quality questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyze the data using SPSS-19. Results: According to the study findings 81.3% of the participating children were male, 45.5% had social security insurence and 58% of their parents were self-employee. According to the findings of the study, the average quality of service from the viewpoint of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder was 60.9 (25.3) out of 100, which indicates the moderate status of quality. Parental involvement in decisions making with an average 68.8 (43.2) had the best status and coordination of care among service providers with a score of 52.4 (29.4) had the worst situation. No significant relationship was found between the domains of participation, coordination, continuity and quality of service from the parents' point of view and demographic information, childherns' health status and ASD diagnosis. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that there is a huge capacity to improve the quality of services provided to children suffering from autism spectrum disorder and the need to develop plans to increase parental involvement in care, coordination between different providers and continuity of care among various responsible organizations.