Lifetime cost to support a person with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may soon cross the $2.4 million mark in the United States, a new study finds.
The findings were made by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. They found that lifetime cost to support a person with ASD and any intellectual disability reaches $2.4 million in the United States and $2.2 million in the United Kingdom. The lifetime cost to support a person with ASD but no intellectual disabilities is about $1.4 million in both the countries.
"We sought to look at the overall economic affect of ASDs, not just the cost of caring for this population, but also the costs of individual and parental productivity loss across both the U.S. and the U.K.," said senior author David Mandell in a news statement. "We also separated out those with intellectual disabilities (ID), as the presence of ID may significantly influence costs."
For the study, the researchers analyzed existing health data in both countries. They supplemented and updated this data in order to estimate the cost of accommodation, medical and non-medical services, special education, and employment support and productivity loss. From the analysis, researchers concluded that there are 3,540,909 individuals with ASD in the U.S. and 604,824 in the U.K. For calculation purpose, the researchers assumed that 40 percent of these individuals (from both countries) had ASD with an ID.
Based on this assumption, researchers found that to support a child with ASD and an ID came up to about $61 billion per year in the U.S. and $4.5 billion per year in the U.K. When the assumed percentage was moved up to 60 percent, the costs rose to $66 billion per year in the U.S. and $5 billion per year in the U.K.
For adults, when the number of patients with ASD and an ID was assumed to be 40 percent, lifetime cost was calculated to be $175 billion per year in the U.S. and $43 billion in the U.K. When this was raised to 60 percent, the numbers grew to $196 billion in the United States and $46 billion in the United Kingdom. For ASD individuals without ID, the lifetime cost was estimated at $1.43 million in the U.S. and $1.36 million in the U.K.
"These numbers provide important information that can help policy makers and advocacy organizations make decisions about how to allocate resources to best serve this population," said Mandell. "Of particular importance is that one of the largest costs was parents' lost wages. This finding makes it imperative that we examine how high-quality intervention can reduce burden on families, allowing them to stay in the work force. It also suggests the need for policies that make the work place friendlier to families of children with disabilities."
Researchers also found that majority of this money was spent on nonmedical costs in both countries. This included special education in childhood, parental productivity loss and productivity losses in adulthood since most of these individuals may encounter difficulty working.
Autism is known as a complex developmental disability. Experts believe that Autism presents itself during the first three years of a person's life. This disorder is characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. According to CDC estimates, 1 in 68 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States. It is five times more common in boys than in girls.
The current study was funded by Autism Speaks and findings were published online in the JAMA Pediatrics.
