Supported employment improves cognitive performance in adults with Autism.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a supported employment programme on measures of executive functions for 44 adults with autism, assessed at the beginning and the end of the programme period. The average length of time of the community employment was 30 months.


METHODS
Based on their predominant work activity over the study period, participants were classified into two groups: supported employment and unemployed. At the start of the programme, the groups did not differ on any of the cognitive measures.


RESULTS
Repeated measures analysis of variance (anova) demonstrated that by the end of the programme, the supported employment group showed higher scores for executive functions on variables of CANTAB (Spatial Span Task--span length recalled; Spatial Working Memory Task--strategy; Planning task 'Stockings of Cambridge'--problems solved in minimum moves; Planning task 'Stockings of Cambridge'--mean planning time) and other tasks such as Trail Making Test - part B, time; Matching Familiar Figures (first answer and errors). In contrast, the unemployed group showed no change over time in their cognitive performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study suggested that vocational rehabilitation programmes have a beneficial impact upon cognitive performance in people with autism.
García-Villamisar
D
D
Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Psicologia Clinica I, Facultad de Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Nuevo Horizonte Association, Madrid, Spain. villamisar@correo.cop.es
Hughes
C
C
D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016832:Employment, Supported / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012931:Social Environment