Repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with autism and their family members: A scoping review.

This review looked at how COVID-19 affected autistic people and their families. The pandemic was especially hard because it disrupted daily routines that autistic people rely on and made it difficult to access school, therapy, and support services. Families experienced more stress, and both autistic children and their parents had more emotional and behavioral difficulties. The pandemic made existing challenges worse for autism families.

This scoping review analyzed 46 publications examining COVID-19 pandemic impacts on autistic individuals and their families. The review found that pandemic restrictions severely disrupted established routines and limited access to essential services including education, therapies, and social support. These disruptions particularly affected the autism community due to their reliance on predictable routines and structured support systems. The evidence indicates the pandemic intensified pre-existing inequalities, resulting in negative consequences across emotional, psychological, behavioral, and social domains.

Quality of life and mental health deteriorated for both autistic individuals and their family members during this period, highlighting the vulnerability of this population during public health crises.

Findings emphasize need for crisis preparedness planning that maintains routine and service access for autistic individuals. Clinicians should prioritize routine preservation and alternative service delivery methods during emergencies. Mental health support for both autistic individuals and families should be enhanced during public health crises.

This is a scoping review without meta-analysis of quantitative outcomes. Sample sizes of included studies not reported. No specific statistical analysis of effect sizes. Limited to publications available by September 2021, potentially missing later pandemic impacts.

to map the diverse scientific evidence available about the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their family members. a scoping review conducted in the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, SciELO, SCOPUS, EMBASE and Wiley Online Library, in August and September 2021. The protocol of this review was registered at the Open Science Framework under DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/JYTVD. The data were analyzed and synthesized in a narrative way. a total of 46 publications identified indicate that the pandemic period brought about countless repercussions for the population with autism and their family members when experiencing serious difficulties in the changes or irregularities of the scheduled routines and limited access to education, therapies and social support. the diverse evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic intensified the inequalities already experienced by individuals with autism and their family members, with negative consequences in the emotional, psychological, behavioral and social aspects, interfering with the quality of life and mental health of this population segment. Future studies on individuals with autism and their families during public health crisis periods are of fundamental importance for planning psychiatric, psychosocial and educational interventions.