Healthcare Professionals' Knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children : A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract: Good prognosis for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their participation in everyday life situations depends on healthcare professionals’ ability to make diagnoses and provide interventions as early as possible. Thus, professionals at the primary healthcare level ought to have the knowledge and competence to identify the symptoms of ASD and make referrals where necessary. This study aims to describe healthcare professionals’ knowledge regarding ASD symptoms in children, and the factors that influence their level of knowledge.  A systematic literature review method as described by Jesson, Matheson & Lacey was used to study the topic, and searches in CINAHL, PsycINFO and PubMed generated 10 relevant articles for the study. Their quality was assessed using the critical review form and content analysis was used to evaluate the findings. ‘healthcare knowledge’ by Kohn were used to explain them.  Findings showed that healthcare professionals have varied levels of knowledge regarding ASD symptoms depending on different factors like professionals’ age, years of work experience, previous encounter with children having ASD, among others. The concept, theory-practice gap and types of knowledge were used to explain the findings. Conclusion: Firstly, increase in ASD training among healthcare professionals is necessary and secondly, it needs to translate to practice for quality care towards children with ASD.