Obesity and Diabetes Before Pregnancy Increases Autism Risk for Offspring

A new study presented at the International meeting for autism research in San Diego suggests that suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity just before pregnancy increased the risk of the baby suffering from autism. Researchers led by Dr Irva Hertz-Picciotto from the University of California used data from the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study in which over a 1,000 children had enrolled.

More than half of the children suffered from ASD while 178 had developmental delays and the remaining 315 children were normally developing.

The researchers found that the mothers of the children who had autism were 60 percent likely to have had either diabetes, hypertension or obesity just before their pregnancies while all of the mothers with children who had development delays had at least one of the three problems.


Source-Medindia