The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak could result in higher levels of psychological distress, especially among people suffering from pre-existing mental health conditions. Young individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are particularly at risk due to their vulnerability to unpredictable and complex changes. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ASD individuals, whether any pre-pandemic sociodemographic or clinical characteristics would predict a negative outcome, and to narratively characterize their needs. Parents and guardians of ASD individuals filled out an online survey consisting of 40 questions investigating socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of their children, impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on their wellbeing and needs to deal with the emergency. Data were available on 527 survey participants. The COVID-19 emergency resulted in a challenging period for 93.9% of families, increased difficulties in managing daily activities, especially free time (78.1%) and structured activities (75.7%), and, respectively, 35.5% and 41.5% of children presenting with more intense and more frequent behavior problems. Behavior problems predating the COVID-19 outbreak predicted a higher risk of more intense (odds ratio (OR) = 2.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.42–3.29) and more frequent (OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.13–2.48) disruptive behavior. Even though ASD children were receiving different types of support, also requiring specialist (19.1%) or emergency (1.5%) interventions in a relatively low proportion of cases, a number of needs emerged, including receiving more healthcare support (47.4%), especially in-home support (29.9%), as well as interventions to tackle a potentially disruptive quarantine (16.8%). The COVID-19 outbreak has undoubtedly resulted in increased difficulties among ASD individuals.

中文翻译：

---

自闭症谱系障碍中COVID-19的社会心理和行为影响：在线父母调查。

2019年的冠状病毒疾病（COVID-19）爆发可能导致更高的心理困扰，尤其是在患有先前存在的心理健康状况的人群中。患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的年轻人特别容易受到不可预测和复杂变化的影响。这项研究旨在调查COVID-19大流行对ASD个体的影响，无论大流行前的社会人口统计学或临床特征是否会预示不良结果，并从叙事角度描述其需求。ASD个人的父母和监护人填写了一个在线调查，其中包含40个问题，调查其子女的社会人口统计学和临床​​特征，COVID-19爆发对他们的健康造成的影响以及应对紧急情况的需求。有527位调查参与者的数据。COVID-19紧急状态给93.9％的家庭带来了艰苦的时期，管理日常活动的困难增加，尤其是业余时间（78.1％）和结构化活动（75.7％），分别有35.5％和41.5％的儿童在场与更激烈和更频繁的行为问题。在COVID-19爆发之前的行为问题预示着更高的风险，即更高的风险（优势比（OR）= 2.16，95％置信区间（CI）1.42–3.29）和更频繁（OR = 1.67，95％CI 1.13–2.48）破坏性行为。尽管ASD儿童获得了不同类型的支持，在相对较低的病例中也需要专家（19.1％）或紧急（1.5％）干预，但仍出现了许多需求，包括获得更多的医疗支持（47.4％），尤其是家庭支持（29.9％），以及采取干预措施来解决潜在的破坏性隔离措施（16.8％）。毫无疑问，COVID-19疫情已导致ASD个体的困难增加。