Academic Highlights - Issue 15
Lindsay et. al (2024)
Racism throughout the course of screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts the experiences and outcomes of racially minoritised young people. In this article, Lindsay and colleagues present the findings of a systematic review that aims to understand the experiences of racism and racial disparities in healthcare among children and youth with autism and their caregivers. Following a systematic search, the authors reviewed 37 peer reviewed articles, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods papers, all of which were from high-income countries. Twenty-seven of the studies focused on the perspectives of children and young people themselves, and 10 concentrated on the perspectives of their caregivers and parents. Of the 22 studies reporting the gender of the children and youth, all but one study had more male than female participants, reflecting trends in the literature and diagnosis of ASD.
Lindsay and colleagues identified four themes related to racism and health disparities in the papers reviewed. The first theme, experiences and aspects of racism and racial disparities, included components such as language and cultural barriers in health care, experiences of poor-quality health care interactions, negative impacts of stereotypes and discrimination, and family and community stigma when young people and their care givers attempt to access healthcare for ASD. Alongside these negative experiences, the second theme focused on disparities in healthcare such as inequities in screening and referral, diagnosis, health care services, care coordination and medication. For example, minoritised children and young people were more likely to be misdiagnosed and lack access to appropriate prescription medication. Theme three discussed the facilitators for accessing health care for minoritised children and youth with ASD, and theme 4 briefly explored recommendations from parents and caregivers including trust building and training and awareness of parents and caregivers on ASD.
In reviewing the literature on children and young people with ASD experiences of racism in healthcare, this article is discussing an inherently intersectional topic. However, much of the literature reviewed and presentation of results in this article lacks attention to intersectionality. The authors highlight this in their limitations but could have strengthened this article by drawing on intersectionality within the discussion. Drawing attention to the experiences of racism by this group of young people is very important but cannot be fully understood separate from their experiences as people with ASD.