Demographic Distribution of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Qatar

Background: The prevalence rate of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased significantly worldwide from 1/10000 in the early 90’s to 1/150 in 2009. The rise in ASD rate has concomitantly raised the awareness about the disorder, and increased the demands for more research, support services, recreational resources and highly trained special education professionals. Moreover, it brought the call to action in individual countries to further investigate the local prevalence rate as well as the detailed demographic distribution of children with ASD within each country. In developing countries, this is still a challenging task. No information about ASD rate or distribution is available in the Gulf countries, including Qatar.
Despite the fact that the state of Qatar has started the initiative of setting the world autism awareness day (WAAD), rate and demographic distribution of children with ASD in Qatar is yet to be established. There is no central ASD database to quantify and maintain all children with ASD within the country. Quality and magnitude of adequate health care services, specialized education centers, appropriate family support and recreation resources are truly reflected by the lack of such central database.

Objectives:

1. To determine the rate and demographic distribution of children with ASD living in Qatar in the last five years.
   
2. To quantify the needs of educational, medical, and social support services for children with ASD and their families living in Qatar.

Methods: Centers/schools provide services for children with ASD in Qatar were identified. The target centers/schools were contacted by phone/fax/emails and official copy of the research proposal was submitted. Field visits to individual centers/schools were executed and information about the number and the demographics of children with ASD were collected. The data collected were categorized according to five demographic distribution variables; nationality, gender, age, educational language and hosting Institutions. Data entry and data analysis were conducted using Scientific Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software.

Results: Nine centers/schools were identified as possible service providers for ASD children (18 years old or younger) in the state of Qatar. Total numbers of ASD children currently living in Qatar and the total number of ASD children lived in Qatar in 2004 will be presented. The collected demographic data of children with ASD according to the five measured variables will also be presented. 

Conclusions: A central list of children with ASD and their demographic distribution was established in Qatar for the first time. The presented results represent promising foundation base to be incorporated into adequate educational, medical, and family support services in the state of Qatar.