Pregnancy factors, parental psychiatric history, and preterm delivery may be associated with the risk of autism, according to a recent study supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study, "Risk Factors for Autism: Perinatal Factors, Parental Psychiatric History, and Socioeconomic Status," appears in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The research, which involved national study of all 698 Danish children with autism born after 1972 and diagnosed before 2000, focused on perinatal risk factors (i.e., delivery and newborn characteristics, pregnancy characteristics, and parental characteristics), parental psychiatric history (i.e., did a parent have a diagnosed psychiatric illness before the date that autism was diagnosed in the child) and socioeconomic status (i.e., the mom’s formal education and parental wealth at the child’s birth). Previous research had suggested each category may represent or include risk factors for autism.
"This study is a helpful step forward in identifying possible risk factors for autism," said Dr. José Cordero, director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. "It also indicates there may be some children for whom we need extra vigilance in watching for signs of developmental delay. In recent years, many programs and studies have found that early recognition of autism and other developmental disabilities is important because early treatment can significantly improve a child’s development."
Some of the specific factors that the study found to be associated with the risk of autism included: breech presentation at birth, delivery before 35 weeks, a parent who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia-like psychosis before the date that autism was diagnosed in the child, and low birth weight at delivery. The study also found many of these factors were independently associated with autism. For example, there was an association between adverse pregnancy events and autism, regardless of whether one of the parents had a diagnosed psychiatric illness.