Obesity, Diabetes Among Pregnant Women Could Lead to Higher Risk of Autism in Children

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one in 68, or around 1.5 percent, of the children in the United States have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to a new study, the risk of babies born with autism increases when the mother suffers from diabetes and/or obesity.

The study, published in the Pediatrics journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), is the first to look into the independent and combined effects of maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and maternal diabetes on the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in parallel with other developmental disorders (DDs).

"The finding is not a total surprise," said study author Dr. Xiaobin Wang, director of the Center on Early Life Origins of Disease at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Many studies have shown that maternal obesity and diabetes have an adverse impact on developing fetuses and their long-term metabolic health."

"Now we have further evidence that maternal obesity and diabetes also impact the long-term neural development of their children," she added.

For the study, the researchers studied the link between autism and maternal health among 2,734 mother-child pairs from the Boston Medical Center and were followed during the study period between 1998 and 2014, Reuters reported.

Wang and his team found that the risk of autism among babies born to women who are either obese or diabetic increases to about 3 percent. The number rises even more to about 5 to 6 percent when the mothers suffer from both obesity and diabetes.

Although the absolute risk of the rate of ASD among people in the United States is lower compared to other common pediatric diseases like obesity and asthma, the impact of ASD on the lives of both the patient and the families involved is huge, according to Dr. Wang.

Today, almost one for every three women in their childbearing age are obese, while about one in 10 have diabetes. During pregnancy, around 2 percent to 10 percent of mothers develop diabetes.

"It is really good advice for women to achieve a healthy weight and get diabetes under control before becoming pregnant for many reasons not related to autism," Renee Gardner, a public health researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden, told Reuters in an email.

Gardner, who was not part of the research, added that those pregnant women who are either obese or suffering from uncontrolled diabetes have a higher risk on both their health and the children's including risk of serious pregnancy complications, C-section delivery and miscarriage.