Vitamin Supplements in Pregnancy Can Lower Autism Spectrum Disorder Risk

Women who take folic acid and multivitamin supplements before and during pregnancy can lower the risk of autism spectrum disorder in their children, reveals a new study.

Maternal vitamin deficiency during pregnancy is associated in some studies with deficits in neural development in children; to avoid neural tube defects in their children, pregnant mothers are routinely recommended to take folic acid during pregnancy but study findings about an association between maternal use of folic acid and multivitamin supplements and risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children have been inconsistent.

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‘Vitamin supplements taken by pregnant mothers before and during pregnancy reduces the risk of autism spectrum disorder in their children.’

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Nearly 45,300 Israeli children born between 2003-2007 were followed up to 2015.

Maternal use of folic acid and multivitamin supplements before and during pregnancy (exposure); ASD (outcome). The association between maternal use of supplements and the likelihood of ASD in children was reported as a statistical measure known as relative risk (a relative risk less than 1 suggests less risk).

This is a case-control cohort study, which is a type of observational epidemiologic study where children with an outcome (ASD) were compared to children without that outcome to identify exposures (maternal use of folic acid and multivitamin supplements) that may increase or protect against risk for ASD. Because researchers are not intervening for purposes of the study, they cannot control natural differences that could explain the study findings.

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The authors of this study were Stephen Z. Levine, Ph.D., of the University of Haifa, Israel, and coauthors.

The results of this study revealed that maternal use of folic acid and multivitamin supplements before and during pregnancy appeared to be associated with a reduced risk for ASD in children compared with the children of mothers who did not use supplements.

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The limitation of this study was that the authors could not rule out the fact that risk reduction is due to other causes.

The research team concluded the study by saying that a reduced risk of ASD in children whose mothers used folic acid and multivitamin supplements before and during pregnancy could have important public health implications but more research is needed to examine this possible association.

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Source-Eurekalert