Quality of Life of siblings of children included in the autism spectrum.

PURPOSE To assess the Quality of Life in siblings of children of the autism spectrum through self-response to the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF questionnaire. METHODS Social-demographic data of 77 children included in the autism spectrum, aged 3 to 16 years, were collected. From these information, 21 older siblings, aged 16 to 30 years, were selected to answer said questionnaire, proposed by the World Health Organization Mental Health Program for quality of life evaluation. RESULTS The data have shown a difference between the Environmental domain and the Physical and Psychological domains. CONCLUSION The aspects related to the environment have an important role to the perception of quality of life self-declared by the subjects. However, family individuality, coping behaviors, social support, and assistance received directly interfere on this perception.