A brief landscape of tools for screening the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in adults: results of an integrative review

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex clinical condition. Despite being less frequent, diagnosis of ASD in adults is gaining more attention, which brings new theoretical and clinical challenges. Screening tools are heavily used to help clinicians. However, few tools are available for that, some with fragile psychometrical and statistical support, and with less focus on behaviors more related to autism in women. That said, this study conducted an integrative review in the PubMed and Scielo databases to identify tools published between 2017 and 2023, either in Portuguese or English. We identified 189 studies and 16 met the inclusion criteria. These studies were grouped into two broad domains, in which (a) they presented a literature review of the available tools or (b) adapted international tools to the Brazilian context. We concluded that (a) few tools are currently available, (b) their psychometric evidence ranged from inadequate to adequate, and (c) a lack of tools is more related to the female population, especially in the Brazilian context. Results were discussed and we recommended that the use of tools should be complementary to the diagnostic process, and new tools with sound psychometric properties are necessary.