Autism in the Gulf States: a regional overview

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

M. Walid Qoronflesh^1,*, Musthafa Mohamed Essa^2,3, Sana T. Alharahsheh¹, Yahya Mohamed Al-Farsi⁴, Samir Al-Adawi^3,5

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¹ Research and Policy Department, World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), Qatar Foundation, P.O. Box 5825, Doha, Qatar

² Department of Human Nutrition, Sultan Qaboos University, PC 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

³ Ageing and Dementia Research Group, Sultan Qaboos University, PC 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

⁴ Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 35, P.C. 123, Alkhoud, Sultanate of Oman

⁵ Department of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 35, P.C. 123, Alkhoud, Sultanate of Oman

^*Correspondence: wqoronfleh@qf.org.qa (M. Walid Qoronfleh)

Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2019, 24(2), 334–346; https://doi.org/10.2741/4721

Published: 1 January 2019

Abstract

In this review, we provide a Gulf region-centric view on autism with special focus on Qatar and Oman, including a review of seminal Qatari/Omani work from the literature. In addition, we offer a summary from the World Innovation Summit for Health and World Innovation Summit for Education autism reports as well as outline some of the main challenges, best practices and a path forward for the Gulf region from a healthcare perspective. Finally, we highlight the role of public outreach and awareness to lay the groundwork for enlightened policy for intervention and resource allocation to care for autistic individuals.

Keywords

Autism Spectrum Disorder

ASD

Autism

Middle East

North Africa

MENA

Gulf Cooperation Council

GCC

Qatar

Oman

Public health

Epidemiology

Review

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