Brief Report: The Negev Hospital-University-Based (HUB) Autism Database

Gal Meiri; Ilan Dinstein; Analya Michaelowski; Hagit Flusser; Michal Ilan; Michal Faroy; Asif Bar-Sinai; Liora Manelis; Dana Stolowicz; Lili Lea Yosef; Nadav Davidovitch; Hava Golan; Shosh Arbelle; Idan Menashe

doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3207-0

Brief Report: The Negev Hospital-University-Based (HUB) Autism Database

J Autism Dev Disord. 2017 Sep;47(9):2918-2926. doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3207-0.

Authors

Gal Meiri¹, Ilan Dinstein^{2

3

4}, Analya Michaelowski⁵, Hagit Flusser⁵, Michal Ilan^{1

2}, Michal Faroy⁵, Asif Bar-Sinai^{1

2}, Liora Manelis^{1

2}, Dana Stolowicz^{1

2}, Lili Lea Yosef^{1

6}, Nadav Davidovitch⁷, Hava Golan^{4

8}, Shosh Arbelle¹, Idan Menashe^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Pre-School Psychiatry Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva, Israel.
² Psychology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
³ Cognitive and Brain Sciences Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁴ Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁵ Zusman Child Development Center, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁶ Public Health Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁷ Health Systems Management Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁸ Physiology and Cell Biology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
⁹ Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. idanmen@bgu.ac.il.
¹⁰ Public Health Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. idanmen@bgu.ac.il.

PMID: 28631035
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-017-3207-0

Abstract

Elucidating the heterogeneous etiologies of autism will require investment in comprehensive longitudinal data acquisition from large community based cohorts. With this in mind, we have established a hospital-university-based (HUB) database of autism which incorporates prospective and retrospective data from a large and ethnically diverse population. The collected data includes social-demographic characteristics, standardized behavioral testing, detailed clinical history from electronic patient records, genetic samples, and various neurological measures. We describe the initial cohort characteristics following the first 18 months of data collection (188 children with autism). We believe that the Negev HUB autism database offers a unique and valuable resource for studying the heterogeneity of autism etiologies across different ethnic populations.

Keywords: Autism; Child development; Epidemiology; Multidisciplinary; Preschool psychiatry.

MeSH terms

Arabs / psychology
Arabs / statistics & numerical data
Autistic Disorder / ethnology*
Autistic Disorder / etiology*
Child
Child, Preschool
Data Collection / methods
Databases, Factual*
Ethnicity / psychology
Ethnicity / statistics & numerical data*
Female
Humans
Jews / psychology
Jews / statistics & numerical data
Male
Prospective Studies
Retrospective Studies
Universities

Grants and funding

527/15/Israel Science Foundation