Frequency of Different Risk Factors of Autism Spectrum Disease: A Multicentre Comparative Study

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of different prenatal risk factors associated with autism spectrum disease. Study Design: A Case-control study. Place and Duration of Study: The Study was conducted at Rawalpindi. Cases were recruited from Autism resource centre (ARC), Step to learn (STL) Rawalpindi, Hassan academy for special children, and Army public academy for special children Rawalpindi and controls from DHQ hospital Rawalpindi from February 2014 to January 2015. Materials and Methods: Two groups of children were included in the study, Group one were diagnosed case of autism ASD (n=101) aged between 3 to 10 years and Group two (control n=233). The data was collected and entered in a self designed structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Vs 20. Results: Over 30 risk factors have been identified. 67.3% cases were males and 32.6% were females whereas 34% controls were males and 66% controls were females. The factors associated with autism were male gender, advanced father's age at child birth, severe iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy, vitamin D deficiency, maternal hypothyroidism, asthma, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity, high stress during pregnancy, C-section, valporoic acid use, antidepressants and antibiotics use in mothers, infection during pregnancy, no or minimum exposure of sunlight during pregnancy, premature birth, Meconium aspiration syndrome and late cry, blood group incompatibility with mothers and Rh incompatibility between mothers and fathers. Conclusion: Prenatal risk factors like stress, vitamin D deficiency, iron deficiency anemia, hypothyroidism, obesity, diabetes, blood group incompatibility with mothers, children born in spring and C section are the strong causes to develop autism in children.

Keywords

• autism, neurodevelopmental disorder, risk factors.