BACKGROUND Complementary and alternative medicine and therapies (CAM) are widely used by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is a gap in our understanding of how and why parents of children with ASD make decisions about CAM treatment, and how "evidence" influences their decision-making. The aim of this study was to explore views and perspectives on CAM decision-making among parents of children with ASD in Australia. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of children with ASD (18 years and under) who were living in Australia. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and then analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS Twenty-one parents were interviewed (20 women and one man). The mean age of participants was 43 years, (SD = 5.12 years), the majority of whom were born in Australia (71%), and almost half (43%) had a bachelor degree or higher. Three main themes were identifiedin the thematic analysis. First theme was 'Parents' experiences of researching CAM treatments, the second theme was, "Navigating CAM information and practices", which comprises of the subthemes: Assessing information on CAM treatments' What counts as 'evidence'? and Assessing the impact of CAM treatments on the child - What counts as effective?, and the final theme was, "Creating a central and trustworthy source about CAM". Across themes parents' CAM decision-making was described as pragmatic, influenced by time, cost, and feasibility. Parents also reported that information on CAM was complex and often conflicting, and the creation of a centralised and reliable source of information on CAM was identified as a potential solution to these challenges. CONCLUSION The development of evidence-based information resources for parents and supporting CAM health literacy may assist with navigating CAM decision-making for children's with ASD.

中文翻译：

---

父母对于自闭症谱系障碍儿童补充药物的信息寻求和决策经验：一项定性研究。

背景技术自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患儿的父母广泛使用补充和替代医学与疗法（CAM）。但是，我们对ASD儿童的父母如何以及为什么做出有关CAM治疗的决策以及“证据”如何影响其决策的理解存在差距。这项研究的目的是探讨澳大利亚ASD儿童父母对CAM决策的看法和观点。方法对居住在澳大利亚的ASD（18岁及以下）儿童的父母进行半结构式访谈。对访谈进行数字记录，转录，然后使用主题分析进行分析。结果采访了21位父母（20名女性和1名男性）。参与者的平均年龄为43岁（SD = 5.12岁），其中大多数人出生于澳大利亚（71％），几乎一半（43％）拥有本科学历或更高学位。在主题分析中确定了三个主要主题。第一个主题是“父母”研究CAM治疗的经验，第二个主题是“导航CAM信息和做法”，其中包括以下子主题：评估CAM治疗的信息“什么算作“证据”？以及评估CAM治疗对儿童的影响-什么才是有效的？最后一个主题是“创建有关CAM的重要中心信息”。跨主题，父母的CAM决策被描述为务实的，受时间，成本和可行性的影响。父母们还报告说，关于CAM的信息很复杂，而且经常相互冲突，建立有关CAM的集中，可靠的信息源被认为是应对这些挑战的潜在解决方案。结论为父母开发基于证据的信息资源并支持CAM健康素养可能有助于引导ASD儿童的CAM决策。