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Maternal hirsutism and autism spectrum disorders in offspring
Journal article

Maternal hirsutism and autism spectrum disorders in offspring

Brian K Lee, Stefan Arver, Linnea Widman, Renee M Gardner, Cecilia Magnusson, Christina Dalman and Kyriaki Kosidou
Autism research, v 10(9), pp 1544-1546
Sep 2017
PMID: 28383189

Abstract

Adult Autism Spectrum Disorder - epidemiology Case-Control Studies Child Female Hirsutism - epidemiology Humans Logistic Models Male Mothers Odds Ratio Risk Factors Sweden - epidemiology Young Adult
Because animal and human studies indicate that androgen exposure can influence neurodevelopment, it has been hypothesized that prenatal exposure to excess androgens may predispose to disorders with male-skewed ratio such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Therefore, maternal conditions characterized by hyperandrogenism such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or hirsutism may be relevant to child ASD. We previously found in a large Swedish case-control study of 23,748 ASD cases and 208,796 matched controls that PCOS in mothers is associated with increased offspring risk of ASD. In the same sample, we have now examined whether maternal diagnoses of hirsutism were associated with ASD. In both unadjusted logistic regression models and models adjusted for a variety of covariates, hirsutism was associated with higher odds of ASD. The most adjusted odds ratios for associations with ASD for hirsutism diagnosis before birth and lifetime diagnosis of hirsutism were 1.64 (95% CI: 0.94, 2.83) and 1.26 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.57), respectively. The presence of an association of maternal hirsutism with child ASD is consistent with the hypothesis that androgens may be involved in the etiology of ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1544-1546. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#5 Gender Equality
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Behavioral Sciences
Psychology, Developmental
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