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Maternal infection requiring hospitalization during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorders
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Maternal infection requiring hospitalization during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorders

Hjördis O Atladóttir, Poul Thorsen, Lars Østergaard, Diana E Schendel, Sanne Lemcke, Morsi Abdallah and Erik T Parner
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, v 40(12), pp 1423-1430
01 Dec 2010
PMID: 20414802

Abstract

Child Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - diagnosis Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - etiology Denmark Female Hospitalization Humans Pregnancy Pregnancy Complications, Infectious Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects Proportional Hazards Models Registries
Exposure to prenatal infection has been suggested to cause deficiencies in fetal neurodevelopment. In this study we included all children born in Denmark from 1980, through 2005. Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and maternal infection were obtained through nationwide registers. Data was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression. No association was found between any maternal infection and diagnosis of ASDs in the child when looking at the total period of pregnancy: adjusted hazard ratio = 1.14 (CI: 0.96-1.34). However, admission to hospital due to maternal viral infection in the first trimester and maternal bacterial infection in the second trimester were found to be associated with diagnosis of ASDs in the offspring, adjusted hazard ratio = 2.98 (CI: 1.29-7.15) and adjusted hazard ratio = 1.42 (CI: 1.08-1.87), respectively. Our results support prior hypotheses concerning early prenatal viral infection increasing the risk of ASDs.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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