*2.3. Study Participants*

Children and their caregivers who attended regular ASD follow-up visits at the Child Developmental Pediatric Unit of the Division of Interdisciplinary Clinics at JPGH, were invited to participate, those who provided consent were included in a consecutive sampling. The inclusion criteria were a child with a diagnosis of ASD made at the Division

of Interdisciplinary Clinics and age of the child under 16 years old. There were no exclusion criteria.

Children's information including gender, age, comorbidities, genetic condition, or another neurodevelopmental disorder were collected from health records. Severity of ASD was categorized following the DSM-5 levels of severity [7]. An unsatisfied basics needs (UBN) [20] score, measuring structural poverty was assigned to describe sociodemographic characteristics.
