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The Association of Maternal Obesity and Diabetes With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

Mengying Li1, M Daniele Fallin2, Anne Riley1

  • 1Departments of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health.

Pediatrics
|January 31, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Maternal obesity and diabetes during pregnancy significantly increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) in children. The combined effect of obesity and diabetes poses the highest risk for these developmental disorders.

Area of Science:

  • Reproductive Health
  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Obesity and diabetes are common in pregnant women in the US.
  • Previous studies have not examined the combined impact of maternal obesity and diabetes on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders (DDs).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the independent and combined effects of maternal prepregnancy obesity and diabetes on the risk of ASD and other DDs.
  • To compare risks across six groups defined by maternal prepregnancy obesity and diabetes status.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 2734 children in the Boston Birth Cohort (1998-2014).
  • ASD and other DD diagnoses were extracted from electronic medical records.
  • Cox proportional hazard regression was used to analyze risks, controlling for confounders.

Main Results:

  • Maternal prepregnancy obesity and pregestational diabetes (PGDM) individually increased ASD risk.
  • Combined obesity and PGDM (HR 3.91) or obesity and gestational diabetes (HR 3.04) significantly elevated offspring ASD risk.
  • A similar risk pattern was observed for intellectual disabilities (ID), particularly in cases with co-occurring ASD and ID.

Conclusions:

  • Combined maternal prepregnancy obesity and diabetes are associated with increased risks of ASD and ID.
  • ASD with ID may have a distinct etiology compared to ASD without ID.
Abstract

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