By Samantha Jones-
Infections in pregnant women have been linked to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, in the child later in life.
Researchers from Karolinska Institute in Sweden revealed their findings in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Approximately one in 44 kids are autistic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Researchers say suggest that autism is being identified in kids at higher rates than ever before. In the early 2000’s, the CDC reported that one in 150 children were autistic
Researchers based their study on data of more than 500,000 children born between 1987 and 2010. The aim was to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between infections in the woman during pregnancy and autism or intellectual disability in the child. Infections were included if they were severe enough to require specialist care and they were identified using diagnostic codes from patient and birth records.
The researchers could see that infections that required specialist care during pregnancy were linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability in children. The study does not conclude that all cases of autism are caused by infected pregnant mothers but have established a causal link.
Causes of autism vary. One of the other established cause of autism has been shown to be children born to older parents, particularly between late forties and late 5o’s. Autism is a spectrum condition, and whilst all autistic people share certain challenges and difficulties, being autistic will affect them in different ways.
When the researchers studied siblings, the result was different. In comparisons between sibling pairs where the mother had had an infection during one pregnancy but not the other, they could not find any link between infection and the children’s risk of autism. The link was weaker in terms of intellectual disability when the researchers compared sibling pairs than when they compared children who are not related.
The researchers also examined the risk of autism and intellectual disability in children if their mother had been diagnosed with an infection during the year before her pregnancy. They concluded that infection before pregnancy would not be linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability if it really was the infection during pregnancy causing the neuropsychiatric conditions.
Here, the researchers could see that infections during the year before pregnancy were linked to the risk of autism to the same degree as infections during pregnancy, but not linked to the risk of intellectual disability.
“The link between infections in pregnant women and the increased risk of autism in their children does not appear to be causal. Our results suggest that the increase in risk is more likely to be explained by factors common between family members, such as genetic variation or certain aspects of the shared environment,” says Martin Brynge, Ph.D. student at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institute, and one of the study’s two first authors.
The researchers emphasize that they have only looked at diagnosis of infections in general. The study does not contradict the significance of the well-established links between some specific viral infections during pregnancy, such as cytomegalovirus infection and rubella, and the risk of serious developmental conditions in the child. The researchers also point out that infections by the agent causing COVID-19 were not included in their study. It is still critical for pregnant women to follow their midwife’s advice regarding infection control.