5-Year Report: SPARK Autism Research Findings

SPARK released the report of the largest study of autism ever of over 275,000 participants, released their 5-year progress report. With participants aged 2 to 92, they are able to study autism across a lifespan.

Main findings include COVID-19’s impact on the autism community, effectiveness of online services, overall emotional well-being of parents and caregivers, as well as attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination.

“During the early months of the pandemic (March 2020 - April 2020), parents raising a child with autism reported higher levels of psychological distress when compared to parents in the U.S. as a whole,” reports SPARK.

50% of the families of children with autism were at risk for a crisis, experiencing moderate to high levels of general distress.

“Most services were disrupted for a majority of autistic individuals across all age groups. Medical services were the least disrupted. While some services had switched to online or telehealth delivery, most individuals with autism were not receiving remote services early in the pandemic, and those who did generally did not find them very helpful,” the report noted.

Few studies are for older autistic adults but one recent study from SPARK recruited 200 adults over the age of 50. It found that adults with autism were more likely to report tremors, muscle stiffness, muscle rigidity, and other movement issues.

The report also states two new studies on mental health - particularly depression in autistic adults. “Researchers found that most autistic adults with depression symptoms are getting diagnosed but, only one-half of those who were currently depressed received treatment,” the report says.