The Health of Parent Caregivers

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.

Hamre, Kristin; Nord, Derek; and Andresen, John (2023) "Caregiver health: Having a child with ASD and the impact of child health insurance status," Developmental Disabilities Network Journal: Vol. 3: Iss. 2, Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/ddnj/vol3/iss2/5 

The abstract

This study aims to understand the health outcomes of parents with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the interactive effect of child health insurance status. The

study utilized 2014-2018 pooled National Health Interview Survey data to construct weighted national estimates and assess main and interaction effect logistic regression models. Findings show parents of children with ASD experienced significantly poorer health compared to parents of children without autism. Insurance status was found to significantly interact with child ASD status. Compared to parents of children without ASD who used private insurance, parents who had a child with ASD who used private insurance, public insurance, or were uninsured were found to have 1.5-, 3.2-, and 2.1-times higher odds of poorer health, respectively. Future research and implications on policy and practice are discussed.