Healthy Prenatal Dietary Pattern Tied to Lower Odds of Autism in Offspring

MONDAY, July 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — High adherence to a healthy prenatal dietary pattern is associated with reduced odds of autism diagnosis in offspring, according to a study published online July 18 in JAMA Network Open.

Catherine Friel, Ph.D., from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a cohort study using data from two large prospective birth cohort studies: the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to examine the associations of prenatal dietary patterns with autism diagnosis and autism-associated traits.

Data were included for 84,548 pregnancies in MoBa and for 11,760 pregnancies in ALSPAC. The researchers found that high versus low adherence to a healthy dietary pattern was associated with reduced odds of autism diagnosis in the final adjusted models (odds ratio, 0.78) and with reduced social communication difficulties at age 3 years in MoBa and at age 8 years in ALSPAC (odds ratios, 0.76 and 0.74, respectively). No consistent associations were seen with other outcomes.

“At present, we remain uncertain as to whether the associations observed are causal,” the authors write. “Further research should substantiate our findings, especially given the inconsistency in the previous literature and across our measures of autism-associated traits.”

Abstract/Full Text