Perfil do Conhecimento dos pais de crianças autistas sobre o autismo.

Abstract

Autism is a development disorder that early affects the brain's basics mechanisms of socialisation and communication. Since it's conception, several myths and beliefs emerged and were dashed. These erroneous concepts often lead to doubts and questions from the parents which are fundamental for the treatment for their children. In virtue of this new role played by the parents, it is necessary to ensure they have an adequate and rationalised knowledge about autism. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the knowledge profile and beliefs of parents with children suffering from autism, about the disorder and to identify factors that can interfere with parental involvement of the treatment. METHODS: The research method developed by Stone has been adpted to meet the objectives of this study. The questionnaire used was firstly composed by the Austism Survey, referring to knowledge and beliefs about autism. The parents of 40 children and adolescents with autism patients at Psychiatric Clinic for Children and Adolescents from HC-UFMG were interviewed. Descriptive analysis and Spearman Correlation Test were conducted. A bilateral p-value less than 0.05 was adpted as significance level. RESULTS: The majority of the interviewees were mothers (90%), people with autism, 31 (77.5%) were male and 9 (22.5%) were female. The parents mostly obtained their information about autism from their standard physicians (62.5%), from others health professionals (35%) and from the internet (32.5%). A percentage of the interviewees (52.5%) acknowledge to be satisfied with the information provided by the health care professionals treating their children, however 95% consider their knowledge as insufficient and 97.5% would like to have more information. Regarding the myths sorrounding autism, 70% of the interviewees believe emotional factors play a part on the etymology of autism, and 30% that autism is a response to the coldness and rejection of parents (other 7.5% do not know or have no opinion about it). Although, 82.5% say autism is a developmental problem, only 17.5% agree that autism has a genetic cause. The majority of the interviewees (97.5%), agree that the symptoms can be improved by non-drug therapies and 90% think people with autism require special education. Twelve (30%) of the interviewees believe that autism can be cured, but 55% think that people with autism will always be dependent. 67.5% of the interviewees believe people with autism have some talent or special skill. The level of schooling of both parents was inversely correlated with the age of diagnosis (father: r=-0,465 e p=0,005; mother: r=-0,635 e p<0,001);, to sum up, the higher the level of education of the parents, the sooner their children were diagnosed with autism. As soon as starded the symptoms, the earlier is the diagnosis (r=0,385 e p=0,014). CONCLUSION: The way parents perceive autism is of extreme importance so that they can engage in effective treatment strategies. The parents are necessary as co-therapists for their children. We observed that parents want to know more about the disorder and often have unfounded beliefs, such as autism due to emotional factors, coldness and rejection from the parents. The results of this work shows the need to provide more and better information about autism to the parents.