Children born to obese mothers with diabetes have more than four times the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder than children of healthy weight moms without diabetes, according to a new study at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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“In order to prevent autism, we may need to consider not only pregnancy, but also pre-pregnancy health”, M. Daniele Fallin, director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities at the Bloomberg School, said.
A different study published past year in the Journal of Autism and Development Disorders estimated that taking care of people with autism cost the country about $268 billion in 2015 – a figure that accounts for medical expenses, other kinds of caregiving and the decreased productivity both from people who care for autistic relatives and for adults on the spectrum. Overall, roughly 1.5% of children born in America have disorders that are identified as being on the autism spectrum.
The findings are vital as more than a third of women of childbearing age are obese, around one in 10 have diabetes and an around 2% to 10% of mother develop diabetes during pregnancy.
Wang and colleagues analyzed data on 2,734 mother-child pairs followed at Boston Medical Center between 1998 and 2014. It was noted that the children with ASD diagnosis were mostly boys who were born preterm with a low birth weight.
When looking at independently, diabetes or obesity during pregnancy were both found to double the likelihood of the respective mother delivering an autistic child. Approximately one in every 68 children in the United States are affected by autism, with rates having exploded nationwide over the past five decades.
Wang added evidence is now available about how maternal obesity and diabetes also impact the long-term neural development of their children.
No previous study has ever investigated the link between obesity, diabetes and childhood autism.
There is nothing new in saying the fact that pregnant women should eat less of sugar as they are at high risk of diabetes.
As it turns out, depending on how advanced your obesity and/or diabetes is, the higher the chance for children to be born with ASD. But a major study could shed new light on some of the maternal health factors that may increase children’s risk of developing the condition.
“Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and maternal diabetes in combination were associated with increased risk for ASD and Intellectual Disabilities (ID)”. Better diabetes and weight management could have lifelong impacts on mother and child, they say.
“There are many hypotheses about how a disrupted immune system during brain development can create developmental disabilities”, said Fallin.
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Additionally, because of the meta-analysis nature of the study, researchers were unable to get their hands on any more data related to the issue than that which was already in the subjects’ files. The Pediatrics study was supported in part by the Ludwig Family Foundation, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
