Mental Health Disparities in Hospital Admissions for Youth with and without Autism

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Pfingston, B. & Sneed, L. (2025). Mental Health Disparities in Hospital Admissions for Youth with and without Autism. Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.5590/jsbhs.2025.19.1716

Publication date: 11 Aug 2025 Added to AutiHub: 25 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Ben Pfingston *
  2. Lindsey Sneed

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare mental health diagnoses in a sample of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and youth without ASD (non-ASD) admitted to inpatient hospitals across the United States. We hypothesized that autistic youth would have a greater proportion of co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses compared to their typically developing peers. To do this, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) 2019 Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID). We compared the proportions of co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses between autistic and typically developing youth. Compared to 21% of non-ASD admissions, 36% of the ASD admissions were for a primary mental health condition. Overall, youth with ASD were significantly more likely to have a co-occurring mental health diagnosis (p < .01, V = 0.08), a diagnosis of unspecified mood disorder (p < .01, V = 0.08), a disruptive and conduct disorder (p < .01, V = 0.10), bipolar disorder (p < .01, V = 0.04), an anxiety disorder (p < .01, V = 0.04), and a psychotic disorder (p < .01, V = 0.04). We observed no significant differences for major depressive disorder (p > .05). These results add to the growing evidence suggesting increased risk for psychopathology and psychiatric hospitalization in autistic youth. This finding may reflect unmet mental healthcare needs for autistic youth at lower levels of care. Research addressing autistic healthcare needs, such as the relationship between care outcomes and provider knowledge, is necessary to improve mental health outcomes in autistic children.

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Cited bibliography overview

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Cited references
53
With a DOI
53
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
3 / 53 (5.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 53 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
53 / 53 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
276
From DOI or external metadata
276
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
111 / 276 (40.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 165 / 276 (59.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 276 (1.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 111 (2.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 3 / 260 (1.2%).
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