CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 73Child Nutrition and Feeding IssuesAutism Spectrum Disorder ResearchEating Disorders and Behaviors

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Food Neophobia: Clinical and Subclinical Links

Open access
Wallace, Gregory L, Llewellyn, Clare, Fildes, Alison, Ronald, Angelica·2018·The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
DOI 10.1093/ajcn/nqy163
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been linked with eating- and feeding-related atypicalities, including food neophobia (FN) (refusal to try unfamiliar foods), since its earliest description. Nevertheless, whether associations between ASD traits and FN extend subclinically into the broader population of children and their potential additive health impacts remains unexplored.Objective We examined ASD-control group differences in FN and ASD trait-FN trait associations, as well as the ability of FN and autistic traits to predict one index of later health-related outcomes [body mass index (BMI)].Design Participants in the present study were a large community-based sample of 8- to 11-y-olds (n = 4564), including a relatively small group of children diagnosed with ASD (n = 37). Parents of these 8- to 11-y-old children completed assessments of FN and autistic traits and provided height and weight metrics at 12 y of age.Results Children with ASD were rated as more food neophobic than their same-age non-ASD peers (2.67 ± 0.83 compared with 2.22 ± 0.73; P < 0.001), and there were subclinical associations between FN and ASD traits (social, communication, and restricted/repetitive behavior) in this community-based sample of children (P < 0.05). Moreover, whereas FN alone predicted lower BMI, the interaction of FN and ASD traits predicted higher BMI (P ≤ 0.01), suggesting that elevated ASD traits in combination with FN exert opposing influences on weight compared with FN alone.Conclusions These findings implicate clinical and subclinical connections between ASD traits and feeding behaviors that could affect health outcomes and therefore should be further explored in future studies of shared etiology and intervention strategy.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/ajcn/nqy163

Cites

41 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Part of this paper’s reference list could not be split into single entries.

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Wallace, G. L., Llewellyn, C., Fildes, A., & Ronald, A.
Affiliations
  • George Washington University (US)
  • University College London (GB)
  • University of Leeds (GB)
  • Birkbeck, University of London (GB)
Corresponding author
Wallace, Gregory L
ORCID
Venue
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-10
Volume
108
Issue
4
Pages
701-707
ISSN
0002-9165 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1093/ajcn/nqy163
OpenAlex
W2885622196
Cited by
73
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2
FWCI
5.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
  • BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (acceptedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Medical Research Council (G0901245, G0500079)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, food neophobia, autistic traits, dietary habits, feeding behavior, body mass index, childhood obesity, restricted and repetitive behaviors, children
MeSH terms
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attitude, Body Weight, Child, Child Behavior, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food, Humans, Male, Parents, Personality, Body Mass Index

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review