Maternal Health in Pregnancy Tied to Risk for Autism in Offspring

THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Maternal health in pregnancy is associated with offspring autism, and these associations are largely attributed to familial confounding, according to a study published online Jan. 31 in Nature Medicine.

Vahe Khachadourian, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the likelihood of autism associated with various maternal prenatal diagnoses, accounting for disease chronicity and comorbidity, familial correlations, and sociodemographic factors.

Overall, 1.6 percent of the 1,131,899 individuals in the sample were diagnosed with autism by the end of follow-up. The researchers found that after accounting for sociodemographic factors, disorder chronicity, and comorbidity and after correcting for multiple testing, 30 of the 236 maternal diagnoses tested were significantly associated with autism, including obstetric, cardiometabolic, and psychiatric disorders, which have previously been associated with autism. In the majority of the observed associations, family-based analyses provided strong evidence for familial confounding.

“Our findings draw attention to the importance of maternal health around pregnancy and reinforce the notion that many of the observational associations between perinatal factors and offspring neurodevelopment are likely noncausal in nature,” the authors write.

One author is currently employed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.

Abstract/Full Text