Improving the Accuracy and Efficiency of Autism Assessment for Adults
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving the Accuracy and Efficiency of Autism Assessment for Adults
IRAS ID
274537
Contact name
William Mandy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East London NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
This project will test the accuracy of 2 versions of a new diagnostic interview for assessing adult autism. We will evaluate the 3Di-Adult, which collects information on current and childhood behaviour from informants; and the 3Di-Adult-Current, a version of the interview that only collects information on current behaviour.
We will evaluate the accuracy of the 3Di-Adult and 3Di-Adult-Current at detecting autism amongst 204 patients (102 women, 102 men) seeking assessment from three NHS adult autism services in East London, Cambridge, and Bristol. The study will last 18 months, recruiting 3 types of participant:
1/. 'Clinical participants' are adults awaiting assessment at an NHS adult autism clinic, who will nominate a person to complete the 3Di-Adult (a 'historical informant') and another person to complete the 3Di-Adult-Current (a 'current informant'). Clinical participants will complete online questionnaires about their thinking styles and social interaction, taking around 30 minutes.
2/. 'Historical informants' will be someone who knows the clinical participant currently, and knew them in childhood (such as a parent or sibling). They will complete the 3Di-Adult as a telephone interview (or if they prefer face-to-face), lasting 1 hour.
3/. 'Current informants' will be someone how knows the clinical participant currently, but did not know them in childhood (such as a spouse, friend, or support worker). They will complete the 3Di-Adult-Current as a telephone interview (or face-to-face) lasting 1 hour.
The assess their validity, outcomes of the 3Di-Adult and 3Di-Adult-Current will be compared with the outcomes of NHS diagnostic autism assessments, for each clinical participant. We will also test the reliability (i.e., stability over time) of the 3Di-Adult and 3Di-Adult-Current, by asking some participants (n=52) to repeat the interviews after 8 weeks.
By testing new assessment measures, this project could improve the accuracy and efficiency of adult autism assessment.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0067
Date of REC Opinion
7 Apr 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion