Thread by @ami_tint

🧵Now published in @journalautism: Our new study of the health characteristics of reproductive-aged #autistic women in Ontario:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…

This study is part of @HilaryKBrown @yonalunsky @latarasoff @susanparish et al.’s ongoing @NIH funded work using @ICESOntario data

WHY is it important to study the health of reproductive- aged autistic women?

Nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned & health before pregnancy has important implications for reproductive, maternal, and neonatal outcomes

We know that women w/ physical, sensory, intellectual/developmental, and multiple disabilities have poorer preconception health than women w/o disabilities. And of all groups, women w/ intellectual/developmental disabilities have the greatest disparities
liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.108…

More autistic women are being identified in recent years. And many have heightened rates of physical health challenges compared to non-autistic women: molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

BUT we know little about reproductive-aged autistic women’s health specifically…

WHAT DID WE DO? We used population-based data from Ontario, Canada to describe the health characteristics of reproductive-aged autistic women who could potentially become pregnant and compared these characteristics to those of non-autistic women

WHAT DID WE FIND? Reproductive-aged autistic women had increased rates of material deprivation, chronic medical conditions, psychiatric conditions, history of assault, and use of potentially teratogenic medication compared to non-autistic women

WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN? Autistic women’s health has received inadequate attention to date. It’s important for us to better understand how to adapt health promotion programs and interventions to better meet the needs of autistic women

We also need to raise the awareness of clinicians providing women’s health care (primary care physicians, obstetricians, and gynecologists) of the care needs of their autistic patients