The association of maternal obesity and diabetes with autism and other developmental disabilities
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity and diabetes are highly prevalent among pregnant women in the United States. No study has examined the independent and combined effects of maternal prepregnancy obesity and maternal diabetes on the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in parallel with other developmental disorders (DDs). METHODS: This study is based on 2734 children (including 102 ASD cases), a subset of the Boston Birth Cohort who completed at least 1 postnatal study visit at Boston Medical Center between 1998 and 2014. Child ASD and other DDs were based on physician diagnoses as documented in electronic medical records. Risks of ASD and other DDs were compared among 6 groups defined by maternal prepregnancy obesity and diabetes status by using Cox proportional hazard regression controlling for potential confounders. RESULTS: When examined individually, maternal prepregnancy obesity and pregestational diabetes (PGDM) were each associated with risk of ASD. When examined in combination, only mothers with obesity and PGDM (hazard ratio 3.91, 95% confidence interval 1.76-8.68) and those with obesity and gestational diabetes (hazard ratio 3.04, 95% confidence interval 1.21-7.63) had a significantly increased risk of offspring ASD. Intellectual disabilities (IDs), but not other DDs, showed a similar pattern of increased risk associated with combined obesity and PGDM. This pattern of risk was mostly accounted for by cases with co-occurring ASD and ID. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal prepregnancy obesity and maternal diabetes in combination were associated with increased risk for ASD and ID. ASD with ID may be etiologically distinct from ASD without ID.
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Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus are associated with a 1.5 times greater odds of ASD in exposed offspring.
“In particular, maternal obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are two factors that have been more extensively studied and were found to be associated with a 1.5 times greater odds of ASD in exposed offspring 55565758.”
From Gastrointestinal Issues and Autism Spectrum Disorder (2020) · cites this paper as [56]
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- Authors
- Li, M., Fallin, M. D., Riley, A., Landa, R., Walker, S. O., Silverstein, M., Caruso, D., Pearson, C., Kiang, S., Dahm, J. L., Hong, X., Wang, G., Wang, M.-C., Zuckerman, B., & Wang, X.
- Affiliations
- Departments of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health,
- Mental Health, and
- Kennedy Krieger Institute (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- PEDIATRICS
- Publisher
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- Published
- 2016-02-01
- Volume
- 137
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e20152206-e20152206
- ISSN
- 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-4275
- PMC
- PMC4732357
- OpenAlex
- W2281491275
- Cited by
- 338
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 15 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 25.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U01AI090727, R21AI079872)
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R21ES011666)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD041702)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Keywords
- maternal obesity, pregestational diabetes, autism spectrum disorder, developmental disabilities, intellectual disability, gestational diabetes mellitus, pre-pregnancy obesity, Boston Birth Cohort
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adolescent, Boston, Child, Developmental Disabilities, Child, Preschool, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Male, Obesity, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications, Pregnancy in Diabetics, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Proportional Hazards Models
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