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Autism Spectrum Disorder and Genetic Testing: Parents’ Attitudes-Data from Turkish Sample

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Abstract

We aimed to examine the opinions of parents’ having a child with ASD, on genetic testing, in a Turkish sample. 951 parents’ attitudes towards genetic testing were included. 89.1% of the parents did not take a genetic test during pregnancy. 87.6% of the parents agreed to take a genetic test if it could explain the cause of ASDs. 93% agreed to take a genetic test, if it would help to have a better treatment in the future. 63.8% of the participants would approve the storage of their DNA samples for the future studies. 94.8% considered being informed about the purpose of taking DNA material for the early diagnosis and 84.2% considered being suggested genetic tests for early diagnosis as important.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Ankara University, Ankara, 06290, Turkey

    Aynur Bütün Ayhan

  2. Kumluca Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Akdeniz University, Dumlupınar Blvd. Konyaaltı Campus, Antalya, Turkey

    Utku Beyazıt

  3. Faculty of Nursing, Department of Midwifery, Ankara University, Ankara, 06230, Turkey

    Şenay Topuz, Maryam Nazhad Abbas & Serkan Yılmaz

  4. Mavi Barış Special Education and Rehabilitation Center, Ankara, Turkey

    Çağla Zeynep Tunay

  5. Institute for Forensic Sciences, Department of Forensic Biology, Ankara University, Ankara, 06590, Turkey

    Serkan Yılmaz

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  1. Aynur Bütün Ayhan
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  2. Utku Beyazıt
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  3. Şenay Topuz
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  4. Çağla Zeynep Tunay
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  5. Maryam Nazhad Abbas
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  6. Serkan Yılmaz
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Contributions

ABA, SY, and UB conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the data collection as well as the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript; ÇZT, MNA, and ŞT participated in the study design and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Serkan Yılmaz.

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Ayhan, A.B., Beyazıt, U., Topuz, Ş. et al. Autism Spectrum Disorder and Genetic Testing: Parents’ Attitudes-Data from Turkish Sample. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 3331–3340 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04798-5

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