Maternal Body Mass Index and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Offspring: A Meta-analysis.
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Controversial results of the association between maternal body mass index (BMI) and risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring were reported among several studies. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the overall association between maternal BMI and risk of ASD in offspring. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched until January 2016. Cohort and case-control studies addressing the association between maternal BMI and risk of ASD in offspring were included. We used random-effect models to estimate the summary relative risks (RRs), we also performed a dose-response meta-analysis to estimate the trend from the correlated log RR estimates across levels of BMI quantitatively. Totally, 6 cohort studies and 1 case-control study involving 8,403 cases and 509,167 participants were included for analysis. The summary RR (95% confidence interval) for ASD in offspring in relation to maternal underweight, overweight, and obesity vs. normal weight during pre-pregnancy or pregnancy, was 1.07 (0.93, 1.23), 1.28 (1.19, 1.36) and 1.36 (1.03, 1.78), respectively. A linear dose-response relationship was found, with a pooled RR of 1.16 (1.01, 1.33) for each 5 kg/m2. increment in maternal BMI. The present study suggests that excessive maternal BMI is associated with increased ASD risk in offspring.
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Maternal effects explain a notable share of variation in traits linked to ASD, such as preterm birth and IQ.
“Maternal effects have been associated with a substantial proportion of the variation in several traits associated with ASD, including preterm birth 5 and intelligence quotient.6”
From Association of Genetic and Environmental Factors With Autism in a 5-Country Cohort (2019) · cites this paper as [6]
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References 48 · Cited by 81
- Authors
- Wang, Y., Tang, S., Xu, S., Weng, S., & Liu, Z.
- Affiliations
- Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Zhongchun
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2016-09-30
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 34248-34248
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5043237
- OpenAlex
- W2526143926
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 0.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271496, 30971040)
- Wuhan University
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- maternal body mass index, autism spectrum disorder, offspring risk, maternal obesity, maternal overweight, maternal underweight, pre-pregnancy body mass index, pregnancy, dose-response relationship, gestational weight gain
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