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Cost of autism in Britain

 

Autism is important because it condemns children to a lifetime of difference. Right now we don’t know the cause, nor do we have any effective remedies. That will change, and at some point decisions will need to be made not only about the effectiveness of any preventive measures or treatments, but also about their cost-effectiveness.

That entails knowing something about the costs of autism. A new study from the Institute of Psychiatry gives us an informed insight [1]. The bottom line is that the cost of autism in Britain is of the order of £1 billion.

Study

The authors performed systematic searches of literature, of various electronic databases, and contacted authors and experts to assemble the package of information on the disorder, its impact on individuals, families and society, and on the costs involved. At each stage of the cost calculations the evidence is outlined in detail.

Results

The main results are shown in Table 1. For a person with autism and additional learning disability the average lifetime costs was £2.94 million. For someone with higher functioning autism the average lifetime cost is £785,000. With an assumed prevalence of autism of five per 10,000 and with 75% of persons with autism having additional learning disability, the annual social cost of autism in Britain is £957 million.

Table 1: Costs of autism in Britain for individuals (lifetime) and society (annual)

Cost category

Individual with learning disability (£)

Individual with higher functioning autism (£)

UK total
(£ million)

Hospital services

26,600

30,700

11

Medication

3,400

8,300

2

Other health and social servcies

71,600

31,200

25

Living support

2,134,000

312,500

669

Voluntary support

18,800

----

5

Special education

179,100

108,300

64

Sheltered work

16,200

67,800

12

Day activities

422,400

74,500

134

Lost productivity

---

137,100

14

Family members time

39,600

14,400

13

Family expenses

30,800

---

9

Total

2,940,500

784,800

957

 

Comment

This study will be particularly useful in assessing the cost effectiveness of prevention strategies or treatment strategies in future. In the meantime it is a wake up call about the seriousness of autism in financial as well as human terms.

References:

  1. K Järbrink & M Knapp. The economic impact of autism in Britain. Autism 2001 5: 7-22.