Hoeberichts, Kirsten (2020) SAM Stress Autism Mate A helping hand in stress reduction for adults with autism spectrum disorder. thesis, Medicine.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Background: Autism spectrum disease (ASD) has a prevalence of 1-3% in the Netherlands. Patients with ASD experience difficulties with detecting stress and experience more stress than the general population. They often have an inadequate coping mechanism to deal with daily stress and are unable to seek support from others. The personalized app SAM (Stress Autism Mate) was developed in close alignment with 15 patients with ASD. SAM supports the patient in detecting stress by generating a questionnaire four times a day, about stress signals in the past four hours. This is followed by a report in which the stress level is visualized and personalized coping advices to reduce stress. Aims: This study assessed the effectiveness of SAM on reducing stress and improving coping and quality of life (QoL). Methods: 15 patients diagnosed with ASD and their informal caregivers were included in this aggregated N=1 study. This is a controlled cross-over trial in which each patient is used as their own control in crossover cycles. Participants completed a validated questionnaire at three measurement moments; baseline(T0), after using SAM for 4 weeks(T1), and 8 weeks after intervention(T2). Concordance between T0–T1 and T0-T2 was examined through paired t-tests and multilevel analysis. Results: Compared to baseline, participants improved the ability to detect and reduce stress, improved their coping skills, and rated their QoL significantly higher. Conclusion: SAM supports adults with ASD in recognizing their stress-related behavioural patterns and allows them to better deal with daily stress. Additionally, a lasting improvement of QoL was seen. SAM can be used both by patients independently as well as part of treatment. Integrated in treatment, SAM may provide focus points for treatment and monitoring of the treatment progress.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Roke, MD, PhD, Y. and Knegtering, MD PhD, H. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2023 12:56 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2023 12:56 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3706 |
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