Perinatal and Neonatal Risk Factors for Autism: A Comprehensive Meta-analysis
By Hannah Gardener, Donna Spiegelman, S. Buka. Pediatrics, 2011
652 citations recorded by the source corpus.
BACKGROUND: The etiology of autism is unknown, although perinatal and neonatal exposures have been the focus of epidemiologic research for over 40 years. OBJECTIVE: To provide the first review and meta-analysis of the association between perinatal and neonatal factors and autism risk. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and PsycInfo databases were searched for studies that examined the association between perinatal and neonatal factors and autism through March 2007. Forty studies were eligible for the meta-analysis. For each exposure, a summary effect estimate was calculated using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity in effect estimates across studies was examined, and, if found, a meta-regression was conducted to identify measured methodological factors that could explain between-study variability. RESULTS: Over 60 perinatal and neonatal factors were examined. Factors associated with autism risk in the meta-analysis were abnormal presentation, umbilical-cord complications, fetal distress, birth injury or trauma, multiple birth, maternal hemorrhage, summer birth, low birth weight, small for gestational age, congenital malformation, low 5-minute Apgar score, feeding difficulties, meconium aspiration, neonatal anemia, ABO or Rh incompatibility, and hyperbilirubinemia. Factors not associated with autism risk included anesthesia, assisted vaginal delivery, postterm birth, high birth weight, and head circumference. CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to implicate any 1 perinatal or neonatal factor in autism etiology, although there is some evidence to suggest that exposure to a broad class of conditions reflecting general compromises to perinatal and neonatal health may increase the risk. Methodological variations were likely sources of heterogeneity of risk factor effects across studies.
Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Mental health, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/da2bc3d716d2142b5b554dd2cb79d1be2e5511fd
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In Cognitive Neuroscience
In Psychiatry and Mental health
Citations in the corpus
- The Central Nervous System and the Gut Microbiome (2016, background): “Large-scale epidemiological studies have demonstrated that prenatal infections significantly increase the risk for schizophrenia in offspring (Khandaker et al., 2013), and data support involvement in ASD aswell, although less conclusively (Gardener et al., 2011).”
- The Changing Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (2016, background): “Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (62, 63, 72, 103) suggest more than 20 individual, familial, and pre-, peri-, and neonatal factors with some level of converging evidence for ASD risk (e.”