Gurevitz Mina, Leisman Gerry
Well Baby Clinic Physician, Maccabi Health Services, Herzliya 4649713, Israel.
Movement and Fetal Cognition Laboratory, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
Brain Sci. 2023 Sep 27;13(10):1374. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13101374.
The global increase in the prevalence of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is of great medical importance, but the reasons for this increase are still unknown. This study sought to identify possible early contributing factors in children who were later diagnosed with ASD. In this retrospective cohort study, postnatal records of 1105 children diagnosed with ASD were analyzed to determine if any signs of ASD could be found in a large database of births and well-baby care programs. We compared the recordings of typically developing children and analyzed the differences statistically. Rapid increases in weight, height, and head circumference during early infancy predict the development of ASD. In addition, low birth weight, older maternal age, and increased weight and height percentiles at six months of age together predict the development of ASD. At two years of age, these four parameters, in addition to impaired motor development, can also predict the development of ASD. These results suggest that the recent increase in ASD prevalence is associated with the "obesity epidemic" and with recommendations of supine sleeping to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, associated with atypical neural network development in the brain.
全球自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患病率的上升具有重大医学意义，但其上升原因仍不明。本研究旨在确定后来被诊断为ASD的儿童可能的早期促成因素。在这项回顾性队列研究中，分析了1105名被诊断为ASD儿童的产后记录，以确定在一个大型出生和婴儿健康护理项目数据库中是否能发现任何ASD迹象。我们比较了发育正常儿童的记录并进行统计学差异分析。婴儿早期体重、身高和头围的快速增长预示着ASD的发展。此外，低出生体重、母亲年龄较大以及6个月大时体重和身高百分位数增加共同预示着ASD的发展。在两岁时，除了运动发育受损外，这四个参数也可预示ASD的发展。这些结果表明，近期ASD患病率的上升与“肥胖流行”以及为预防婴儿猝死综合征而推荐的仰卧睡眠有关，与大脑中非典型神经网络发育有关。
