Autism is not strongly linked to maternal health issues during pregnancy, according to a comprehensive study that examined over 1.1 million pregnancies. Rather, genetic or environmental factors could account for almost all of the previously documented relationships between autism and maternal diagnosis.
Only foetal difficulties were found to be statistically associated with autism, indicating that these problems may be early indicators rather than causes. The study further eliminated numerous maternal diseases as relevant variables by examining the medical records of the father and siblings. The results highlight the likelihood that genetic factors, rather than maternal health issues, cause autism to develop prior to delivery. This research may help alleviate guilt for parents and shift focus toward early diagnosis and support.
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Factors to consider
- Genetic Influence: Compared to maternal health issues, autism risk was more closely associated with genetic and environmental factors.
- Foetal difficulties: The only pregnancy difficulties that were still linked to autism were those that affected the foetus, maybe as early indicators rather than causes.
- Sibling Comparison: It did not consistently raise the risk of autism when mothers had the same problem throughout different pregnancies, suggesting that there were familial variables at work.
A recent analysis reveals that almost all of these “associations” may be explained by other factors including genetics, exposure to pollution, and access to healthcare, despite numerous studies reporting a link between a mother’s health state during pregnancy and her child’s risk of autism.
The study, which was led by experts at NYU Langone Health, found that all of the rare illnesses that are directly linked to autism were actually problems with the foetus. This led the authors to conclude that the symptoms were early indicators of autism in the child rather than the cause of the disorder. The new study, which was published online on January 31 in the journal Nature Medicine, involved a review of the medical records of almost 1.1 million pregnancies (among 600,000 mothers) from a Danish national registry.
In Denmark, all of a person’s medical records are combined under a single government-issued number, known as an ICD-10 code. This allowed researchers to check each woman for more than 1,700 different diagnoses as defined by international standards, in contrast to the United States, where medical records are frequently dispersed among numerous medical providers a person sees over the course of their lifetime.
Researchers selected 236 diagnoses from these, concentrating their investigation on those that occurred in at least 0.1% of pregnancies. The study’s researchers adjusted for variables that might confuse or provide a different explanation for the relationship between a woman’s diagnosis and a child’s autism diagnosis.
Since children of older moms are more likely to be diagnosed with autism and their mothers are more likely to be diagnosed with certain conditions, including hypertension, than their younger counterparts, these factors include the mother’s age during pregnancy and her sociodemographic position. Even when these confounding variables and concurrent diagnoses were taken into consideration, 30 were still statistically linked to the child’s autism.
Conclusion
The prevailing theory is that autism actually begins in utero. A child’s developmental alterations have been occurring for the entire period before they are officially diagnosed with autism. According to Janecka, “It is heartbreaking that many mothers of children with autism feel guilty about it, believing that they did something wrong during pregnancy.” It is crucial, in my opinion, to demonstrate that these factors do not cause autism since doing so could result in better strategies for helping autistic kids and their families.
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