A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2020 Feb 5;22(3):13. doi: 10.1007/s11920-020-1136-7.
We review original research about services for adults on the autism spectrum published from January 2013 through December 2018. The main aim is to characterize the topical and methodological aspects of research about services. We review research on services related to employment, living in the community, and social participation. We compare our results with those from a similar review published in 2012 to assess progress and identify where new directions in research about services for adults with autism are needed.
We found the evidence base about services for adults on the autism spectrum remains very small and highly variable in aims and methods. There is wide variability in methods used to define sampling frames and recruit participants. Most studies focus on employment. Almost no studies examine the overall ecosystem of services serving autistic adults. Few studies use a conceptual framework for understanding access to, or improvement of, services. The small size of the extant research coupled with inconsistent quality prevents the accumulation of new knowledge in ways that would significantly inform the improvement of systems of care for the growing population of adults on the autism spectrum.
我们对 2013 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月发表的关于自闭症谱系成人服务的原始研究进行了综述。主要目的是描述与就业、社区生活和社会参与相关服务的研究的主题和方法方面。我们回顾了与服务相关的研究，包括就业、社区生活和社会参与。我们将我们的结果与 2012 年发表的类似综述进行了比较，以评估进展情况，并确定需要在自闭症成人服务研究方面开辟新的方向。
我们发现，关于自闭症谱系成人服务的证据基础仍然非常小，并且在目标和方法上高度可变。在用于定义抽样框架和招募参与者的方法上存在很大差异。大多数研究都集中在就业上。几乎没有研究考察为自闭症成年人提供服务的整个服务生态系统。很少有研究使用概念框架来理解服务的获取或改善。现有研究的规模较小，而且质量不一致，这使得无法以能够显著为不断增长的自闭症谱系成年人的护理系统改进提供信息的方式积累新知识。
