Oakland, CA—Asthma or allergies in an expectant mother may increase the likelihood that her child will exhibit symptoms of autism, according to a Kaiser Permanente study featured in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine’s February issue. Mother’s Asthma or Allergies May Increase Risk of Autism in child Kaiser Permanente Research shows autoimmune diseases once considered risk factors not associated with autism in children (02.07.05)
The study also looked at the assumed association between autoimmune diseases such as lupus, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and Addison’s disease and autism in the children of mothers with those conditions.
“With the exception of psoriasis, we did not find an association between autoimmune diseases in mothers and autism,” says study author Lisa A. Croen, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, CA. “What we did find was a two-fold increase in autism among children of asthmatic mothers or women with allergies, particularly if their symptoms were medically diagnosed in the second trimester of pregnancy.”
This association between a mother’s asthma and allergies and a child’s autism has not been reported in the medical literature previously, says Dr. Croen, and requires replication in further studies.. Even with the increase in risk, Dr. Croen cautions that the risk of autism is still small, less than 1% even in children of women with asthma during pregnancy.
The study looked at more than 88,000 children born within the Kaiser Permanente population of Northern California between January 1995 and June 1999. From that group, 420 children between 3 and 7 years old were identified with diagnoses of autism. Those children were compared with a control group, children without a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders.
Dr. Croen and her associates at Kaiser Permanente, the Department of Health Services in Oakland, CA, and the University of California at Davis found no association between autoimmune diseases in pregnant women and an increased risk of autism in their children, with the exception of psoriasis, which was associated with over a doubling in risk . Asthma and allergies in expectant mothers were associated with 50% increase in risk of autism in their children.
Kaiser Permanente has research offices in California, Oregon, Hawaii, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, and Ohio. Results of research conducted by Kaiser Permanente physicians and investigators have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Permanente Journal, the American Journal of Public Health, Pediatrics, and other clinical journals.
Kaiser Permanente is America’s leading integrated health plan. Founded in 1945, it is a not-for-profit, group practice prepayment program with headquarters in Oakland, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 8.2 million members in 9 states and the District of Columbia. Today it encompasses the not-for-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Permanente Medical Groups.
Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 138,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than 11,000 physicians representing all specialties.
http://www.kaiserpermanente.org