The Experience of Anxiety in Adolescents living with Autism

Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Systematic Review of Previous Studies.

After extensive review of the studies that were found within the body of knowledge of the
studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the preferred area of study to be examined is
that of the experience of anxiety in adolescents living with ASD. My review of studies in the
background area allowed me to conclude that systematic review enables highlighting the
current and emerging status of evidence-based medicine, while unsystematic review is merely
descriptive and unstructured resulting in a low quality review (Tawfik et al., 2019). Hence,
my overall aim is to gain an understanding of the available levels of scientific evidence
within the context of the eight papers primary research articles that will be reviewed for the
research.

In view of this, the research question for the study is: What are the lived experiences of
Anxiety in Adolescents living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? To answer this
question, I will follow the PEO framework to conduct a qualitative research, within the
context of procedure explained by Linares-Espinós et al. (2018) to develop a rigorous
protocol of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and then perform a detailed and broad search of
literature in order to identify evidence that can be synthesised. I will screen the studies for the
inclusion and exclusion criteria by reviewing the abstracts of the studies that have been
identified in the research, and subsequently embark on an in-depth study of each of the eight
research studies. Evidence will be synthesised from these eight studies during the in-depth
study by identifying and extracting themes which helps to summarise each study, and the
findings that were produced. Thereafter, I will assess the biases (if any) that are presented in
each study, with the aid of one of the available tools that are applicable for bias assessment in
qualitative studies, such as the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP), the Joanna
Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist for qualitative research, and the Quality
Framework: Cabinet Office Checklist for social research (Ma et al., 2020). including the
quality of available evidence(s) that are presented. Table(s) and text will be developed to
support the synthesis of the evidences that are identified in the studies.

The synthesis of the evidence will be followed by a critical analysis of the evidence and a
summary of the eight research papers, and whether the research question has been answered.
The above process will be written in a report format that highlights the systematic review,
and follows a structured and scientific approach. The procedure followed in synthesising the
evidence must be such that the results are reproducible in any subsequent research. The
conclusion will include the value that can be derived by clinical decision makers from the
evidence(s) that have been synthesised in the report
 References

Linares-Espinós, E.; Hernández, V.; Domínguez-Escrig, J. L.; Fernández-Pello, S.; Hevia, V.; Mayor, J.;
Padilla-Fernández, B. and Ribal, M. J. (2018). Methodology of a systematic review. Actas Urol
Esp (Engl Ed), 42 (8), 499-506

Ma, L. L.; Wang, Y. Y.; Yang, Z. H.; Huang, D.; Weng, H. and Zeng, X.-T. (2020). Methodological quality
(risk of bias) assessment tools for primary and secondary medical studies: what are they and
which is better? Military Medical Research [Online], 7(7), Springer Nature. Available Online:
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40779-020-00238-8 [Accessed 29 March 2022].

Tawfik, G. H.; Dila, K. A. S.; Mohamed, M. Y. F.; Tam, D. N. H.; Kien, N. D.; Ahmed, A. M. and Huy, N.
T. (2019). A step by step guide for conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis with
simulation data. Tropical Medicine and Health [Online], 47(46), Springer Nature. Available
Online: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-019-0165-6 [Accessed 01 April 2022].