About one in 68 children is estimated to have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Families caring for persons with autism, which affects a child's normal development and causes social, emotional and communication problems in those affected, can suffer a heavy financial toll.
Researchers of a new study that sought to determine the costs associated with caring for persons with autism in the United Kingdom and the United States found that supporting children with autism over a lifetime can cost as much as $2.4 million including expenses incurred from lost wages, special education, residential care and driving up expenses.
Caring for persons with autism and intellectual disability over a lifetime appears to be more costly with expenses reaching $2.4 million in the U.S, and $2.2 million in the U.K. Up to 60 percent of people with ASD have mental disability characterized by limited intellectual function and practical skills.
Lifetime care for individuals with ASD without intellectual disability costs lower but remains relatively high at $1.4 million for those based in the United States and $1.4 million for individuals living in the United Kingdom. The figures do not include the costs associated with raising children until the age of 18 which in the U.S. costs $241,000 on average.
What drive up the costs are the expenses spent on services such as home health care, special education, medical care and after-school care which make up about 79 percent of the total costs. Productivity losses or wages that caregivers lost to care for an autistic family member make up about 9 percent of the total costs.
"The largest cost components for children were special education services and parental productivity loss," the researchers wrote in their study "Costs of Autism Spectrum Disorders in the United Kingdom and the United States" published in the JAMA Pediatrics on June 9. "During adulthood, residential care or supportive living accommodation and individual productivity loss contributed the highest costs."
Study researcher David Mandell, from the Pennsylvania's Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research said that he was surprised to find that lost wages of parents for tending children with ASD make up the second-highest cost of caring for children with autism.
"When we think about what is needed to support people with autism, we so often look to medical care for that support," Mandell told HealthDay. "I think this shows there are other places we need to look as well."
