Table 4.
Associations between age at diagnosis and socio-demographic characteristics
| Age at diagnosis <7 years (preschool) | Age at diagnosis at ≥7 years (older/adolescents) | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variables | Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) | Difference |
| Age at 1st contact | ||||
| 6 years and below | 20 (87.0) | 3 (13.0) | 23 | χ2 = 58.570, df = 2 |
| 7–12 years | 0 (0.0) | 27 (100.0) | 27 | p < 0.001 |
| 13 years and above | 0 (0.0) | 10 (100.0) | 10 | |
| Current age range | ||||
| 6 years and below | 18 (100) | 0 (0.0) | 18 | χ2 = 51.667, df = 2 |
| 7–12 years | 2 (7.4) | 25 (92.6) | 27 | p < 0.001 |
| 13 years and above | 0 (0.0) | 15 (100.0) | 15 | |
| Gender | ||||
| Males | 16 (38.1) | 26 (61.9) | 42 | χ2 = 1.429, df = 1 |
| Females | 4 (22.2) | 14 (77.8) | 18 | p = 0.232a |
| Educational level | ||||
| None/out of school | 8 (32.0) | 17 (88.0) | 25 | χ2 = 1.906, df = 2 |
| Nursery/play group | 10 (41.7) | 14 (58.3) | 24 | p = 0.386 |
| Primary/junior college | 2 (18.2) | 9 (81.8) | 11 | |
| Socio-economic class | ||||
| High | 4 (44.4) | 5 (55.6) | 9 | χ2 = 0.598, df = 2 |
| Middle | 10 (32.3) | 21 (67.7) | 31 | p = 0.226 |
| Low | 6 (30.0) | 14 (70.0) | 20 | |
| Residence | ||||
| Urban | 17 (42.5) | 23 (57.5) | 40 | χ2 = 4.538, df = 1 |
| Rural & semi-urban | 3 (15.0) | 17 (85.0) | 20 | p = 0.044c |
| Autism awareness | ||||
| No | 18 (31.0) | 40 (69.0) | 58 | χ2 = 4.069,df = 1 |
| Yes | 2 (100.0) | 0 (0.0) | 2 | p = 0.107a |
a
Fisher's exact value.