Social and Public Health Intervention for Improving Quality of Life of Child and Adolescent with Intellectual Disability, or Learning Disability or Autistic-Spectrum Disorders: a Scoping Review

Abstract

This study aimed to review the state of the arts of literature concerning social/ public health programmes or service delivery packages aiming at quality of life development for children and/or adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and/or learning disability (ID) as well as those with autisticspectrum disorders (ASD). The scoping review method was applied. The review found that the majority of selected articles were performed in developed countries. Programmes or service packages presented in most articles are diverse in terms of programme duration, providers and activity characteristics. Most studies emphasised on disabled child individual treatment and relied on health personnel with particular expertise, such as, occupational therapists, and child-and-adolescent psychiatrists, asthe main actors. Moreover, most studies were exercised in well-controlled settings, and led to the development of particular skills. Nevertheless, the effects to quality-of-life development as a whole are not apparent. Parent training interventions and community-based rehabilitation programmes seem to have beneficial outcomes on disabled children and also their families. Note that the studies on economic evaluation and on the possibility of the implementation of programmes in actual settings are lacking. The review findings are likely to serve as a basis for future discourse amongst academicians, policy makers and operational-level health personnel for the design of programmes or services, which are appropriate to the Thai public health context, and serve as a foundation for further critical studies, either in term of primary research, economic evaluation study, systematic review, and meta-analysis.