Primal Health Databank: Study
| Entry No: | 0396 |
| Title: | Perinatal risk factors for infantile autism |
| Author(s): | Hultman CM, Sparen P, Cnattingius S |
| Reference: | Epidemiology 2002; 13(4): 417-23 |
| Place of Study: | Sweden |
| Abstract: | The authors evaluated the association of maternal, pregnancy, delivery, and infant characteristics and risk of infantile autism. This is a case-control study involving all Swedish children born in 1974-1993. Cases were 408 children (321 boys and 87 girls) discharged with a main diagnosis of infantile autism from any hospital in Sweden before 10 years of age in the period 1987-1994, plus 2,040 matched controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The risk of autism was associated with daily smoking in early pregnancy (OR = 1.4; CI = 1.1-1.8), maternal birth outside Europe and North America (OR = 3.0; CI = 1.7-5.2), cesarean delivery (OR = 1.6; CI = 1.1-2.3), being small for gestational age (SGA; OR = 2.1; CI = 1.1-3.9), a 5-minute Apgar score below 7 (OR = 3.2, CI = 1.2-8.2), and congenital malformations (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.1-3.1). No association was found between autism and head circumference, maternal diabetes, being a twin, or season of birth. These findings suggest that intrauterine and neonatal factors related to deviant intrauterine growth or fetal distress are important in the pathogenesis of autism. |
| Keyword(s): | apgar score, autism, autistic spectrum disorder, birth weight, caesarean, cesarean, intrauterine growth retardation |
| Discussion: | The authors could not look at labor induction as a possible risk factor. This variable was not mentioned in the Swedish birth registry before 1991. This is an important issue, since the epidemic of labor induction is developing side by side with the epidemic of autism. |
| See Also: | No related entries mentioned for this entry |
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