Practice Patterns and Potential Barriers to Early Diagnosis of Autism in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Preliminary Study.

The aim of this preliminary study was to identify the practice patterns and potential barriers to diagnosing autism in Bosnia & Herzegovina. 126 children aged 23 to 94 months with developmental concerns referred to treatment centers participated in the study. Although parents had reported developmental problems in their children usually around the age of 17 months, it took them 812 visits to professionals (> 6 visits per child) over several months (mean 16.8, range 2-52 months) to get diagnosed with any developmental disorder. Only 8 children (6.3%) received a diagnosis of autism. However, when we re-examined 110 of the 126 children, 90 of them (71%) were identified with autism. Implications of these findings are discussed.