Reuters (5/4, Kelland) reported that according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and scheduled for presentation this past weekend at the annual meeting of the Pediatrics Academic Societies, environmental factors may be at least as important as genetics when it comes to autism. For the study, researchers analyzed data on two million youngsters born in Sweden between the years 1982 and 2006. Of those children, 14,516 were diagnosed with autism.
HealthDay (5/4) reported that researchers also found that “children with brothers or sisters who had previously been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum had a 10-fold higher risk for being diagnosed with the disorder themselves.”
Related Links:
— “Environment as important as genes in autism, study finds,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, May 3, 2014.