Zeitschrift für Schwangerschaft und Kindergesundheit

Abstrakt

Autistic Behaviors Prevalence in Young Children Three Years after the Devastating Haiti Earthquake

Judite Blanc and Yoram Mouchenik

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine, prospectively the prevalence of autistic behaviors in a cohort of young children who were exposed in utero to a devastating earthquake 3 years later.

Method: Subjects were 364 (50.8% boys) children 39 months old (3.3 years) who were in utero during the 2010 Haiti earthquake that resulted in a death toll of approximately 222,000. In August 2013, mothers completed several questionnaires including those about autistics behaviors and emotional problems in children (Echelle d’Evaluation des Comportements Autistiques Révisée -ECAR or Autistic Behaviors Scale Revised and the Child Behavior Check-List 1 ½-5).

Results: Eight (2.2%) out of 364 children surveyed met criteria for intense autistics behaviors, 4 came from the epicenter and 4 were exposed as a foetus at the 3rd trimester, a large part of their mothers (7) needed psychological support, and 5 of those mothers experienced the death of family member following the disaster.

Conclusions: the prevalence of autistic behaviors found in a cohort of 3 years old children exposed to the disaster is high compared to other estimates worldwide. The results of this first study to investigate prevalence of autism in a cohort of exposed children prior to birth to earthquake in Haiti underlines the need for further and larger epidemiological research with culturally sensitive tools for the evaluation of young subjects exposed directly or indirectly to traumatic events in Haiti.