title: Employment and financial burden of families with preschool children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders in urban China: results from a descriptive study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects many aspects of family life, such as social and economic burden. Little investigation of this phenomenon has been carried out in China. We designed this study to evaluate the employment and financial burdens of families with ASD-diagnosed preschoolers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four hundred and fifty-nine nuclear families of children with ASD, 418 with some other disability (OD) and 424 with typically developing (TD) children were recruited for this study. Employment and financial burdens of families were evaluated using a structured questionnaire; logistic regression was used to examine differences in job change measures by group, and ordinal logistic regression was used to investigate the association between household income and group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-eight percent of families with ASD children and 19% of families with OD children reported that childcare problems had greatly affected their employment decisions, compared with 9% of families with TD children (p < 0.001). Age of child, parental education and parental age notwithstanding, having a child with ASD and having a child with OD were both associated with increased odds of reporting that childcare greatly interfered with employment (ASD, OR: 15.936; OD, OR: 2.502; all p < 0.001) and decreased the odds of living in a higher-income household (ASD, estimate = -1.271; OD, estimate = -0.569; all p < 0.001). The average loss of annual income associated with having a child with ASD was Chinese RenMinBi (RMB) 44,077 ($7,226), compared with RMB 20,788 ($3,408) for families of OD children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ASD is associated with severe employment and financial burdens, much more than for OD, in families with preschool children.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, P.R. China. oujianjun08@163.com.|Division of Clinical Sciences, Lieber Institute for Brain Development, John Hopkins University Medical Campus, 855 N. Wolfe Street, Suite 300, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. oujianjun08@163.com.
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, P.R. China. zijuanwd@163.com.
authors.forename: Li-Juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Shandong Mental Health Center, 49 East Wenhua Road, Jinan, 250014, Shandong, P.R. China. xungl@163.com.
authors.forename: Guang-Lei
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Xun
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Institute of Forensic Science, The Ministry of Justice, 1347 West Guang Fu Road, Shanghai, 200063, P.R. China. chenchen15601@163.com.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, P.R. China. wurenrong2013@163.com.
authors.forename: Ren-Rong
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, P.R. China. luoxr@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Xue-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Sciences, Lieber Institute for Brain Development, John Hopkins University Medical Campus, 855 N. Wolfe Street, Suite 300, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. zhangf28@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Feng-Yu
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, P.R. China. zhaojingpinghunan@163.com.
authors.forename: Jing-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002654:Child Care / Q000191:economics; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000191:economics*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*