Season of birth in autism: A fiction revisited
Abstract
Variations of season of birth among autistic individuals were studied. The replicability of previously reported increases in birth rates in the months of March and August were examined in groups of individuals with autism or mental retardation (the comparison group). The sample was obtained from the Yale Child Study Center Developmental Disabilities Clinic and from the DSM-IV Autism/PDD field trial. Data were analyzed by applying the Jonckheere test of ordinal trend and the chi-square test, with Yates correction factor. With respect to March and August births, and with calculations based on the beginning and middle of the month, no significant seasonal effect was observed. Samples were subcategorized into verbal and mute groups, and again results failed to support the seasonality hypothesis.
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Landau et al. (1999) included cases with autism from different regions with different environmental influences and controls were individuals with mental retardation; inclusion of these disorders in the control group may mask the seasonal variability among groups.
“Landau et al. (1999) included cases with autism from different regions with different environmental influences and controls were individuals with mental retardation [86]. Disorders of neurodevelopment may share the same environmental influences and inclusion of these disorders in the control group may mask the seasonal variability among groups.”
From Vitamin D and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review (2016) · cites this paper as [86]
Not all studies showed an association between season of birth and risk of autism.
“Not all studies showed an association between season of birth and risk of autism [64,77,79,81,83,84,85,86].”
From Vitamin D and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review (2016) · cites this paper as [86]
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- Authors
- Landau, E. C., Cicchetti, D. V., Klin, A., & Volkmar, F. R.
- Affiliations
- Bar-Ilan University (IL)
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Volkmar, Fred R.
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 1999-10
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 385-393
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- OpenAlex
- W1582400432
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2023: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 0.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD03008, P01HD003008)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Down syndrome and intellectual disability research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Keywords
- season of birth, autism spectrum disorder, birth rate, intellectual disability
- MeSH terms
- Autistic Disorder, Child, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Intellectual Disability, Mutism, Retrospective Studies, Seasons, Reproducibility of Results, Bias
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