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Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF

While the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, early outcome studies indicate severe and pervasive global effects of the pandemic and associated measures to prevent the spread of the virus. General population studies, as well as insight into the outcomes for particular groups, will be necessary in order to...

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Autores principales: Fridell, Anna, Norrman, Hjalmar Nobel, Girke, Linda, Bölte, Sven
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162290
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031268
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author Fridell, Anna
Norrman, Hjalmar Nobel
Girke, Linda
Bölte, Sven
author_facet Fridell, Anna
Norrman, Hjalmar Nobel
Girke, Linda
Bölte, Sven
author_sort Fridell, Anna
collection PubMed
description While the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, early outcome studies indicate severe and pervasive global effects of the pandemic and associated measures to prevent the spread of the virus. General population studies, as well as insight into the outcomes for particular groups, will be necessary in order to mitigate potentially long-term effects as well as to prepare for future epidemics or pandemics. The pandemic conditions have been marked by rapid and abrupt changes and unpredictability which are circumstances that leave the autistic population particularly vulnerable to adverse outcomes following the distinctive features of the diagnosis. Studies are only beginning to delineate the outcomes of the global autism community and the present study adds to these findings by providing a local, multi-perspective, qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of the Swedish autism community. In this study, autistic youth and adults, caregivers of autistic individuals, as well as representatives of Swedish interest organizations were interviewed. Thematic analysis was performed on the population as a whole and patterns of results were formalized according to the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF-CY). Participants report wide-ranging adverse outcomes of the pandemic relating to mental health and access to support, participation in daily activities and socialization, education, and work as well as parental resources. However, participants also report positive outcomes relating to a reduction in specific social and everyday demands, and normalization of lived experiences. Additionally, interviews outlined some strategies used to cope during pandemic conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-88350792022-02-12 Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF Fridell, Anna Norrman, Hjalmar Nobel Girke, Linda Bölte, Sven Int J Environ Res Public Health Article While the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, early outcome studies indicate severe and pervasive global effects of the pandemic and associated measures to prevent the spread of the virus. General population studies, as well as insight into the outcomes for particular groups, will be necessary in order to mitigate potentially long-term effects as well as to prepare for future epidemics or pandemics. The pandemic conditions have been marked by rapid and abrupt changes and unpredictability which are circumstances that leave the autistic population particularly vulnerable to adverse outcomes following the distinctive features of the diagnosis. Studies are only beginning to delineate the outcomes of the global autism community and the present study adds to these findings by providing a local, multi-perspective, qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of the Swedish autism community. In this study, autistic youth and adults, caregivers of autistic individuals, as well as representatives of Swedish interest organizations were interviewed. Thematic analysis was performed on the population as a whole and patterns of results were formalized according to the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF-CY). Participants report wide-ranging adverse outcomes of the pandemic relating to mental health and access to support, participation in daily activities and socialization, education, and work as well as parental resources. However, participants also report positive outcomes relating to a reduction in specific social and everyday demands, and normalization of lived experiences. Additionally, interviews outlined some strategies used to cope during pandemic conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed. MDPI 2022-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8835079/ /pubmed/35162290 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031268 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fridell, Anna
Norrman, Hjalmar Nobel
Girke, Linda
Bölte, Sven
Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title_full Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title_fullStr Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title_full_unstemmed Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title_short Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF
title_sort effects of the early phase of covid-19 on the autistic community in sweden: a qualitative multi-informant study linking to icf
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162290
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031268
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