Healio (9/13, VanDewater) reports, “The association between maternal infection during pregnancy and children’s diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability was not causal, according to a Swedish register-based cohort study.” One researcher wrote, “We found no evidence to suggest that having an infection during pregnancy would increase the child’s risk of autism. … Instead, it may be unmeasured genetic and/or environmental factors that cause both infections in these mothers and autism in their children separately.” The findings were published online in The Lancet Psychiatry.
HealthDay (9/13, Mann) reports, “When researchers compared siblings, those exposed to an infection during pregnancy were no more likely to develop autism than their brothers or sisters who weren’t exposed.” Also, “women who had an infection a year before they became pregnant were linked to a similar autism risk as infections during pregnancy, but not linked to risk of intellectual disability.”
Related Links:
— “Link between maternal infection, offspring’s autism not causal, study shows “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, September 13, 2022