Family-based analyses provided strong evidence for familial confounding in observed associations
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Any observed associations of maternal health in pregnancy and offspring autism are largely attributed to familial confounding, according to a study published online Jan. 31 in Nature Medicine.
Vahe Khachadourian, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the likelihood of autism associated with various maternal prenatal diagnoses, accounting for disease chronicity and comorbidity, familial correlations, and sociodemographic factors.
Overall, 1.6 percent of the 1,131,899 individuals in the sample were diagnosed with autism by the end of follow-up. The researchers found that after accounting for sociodemographic factors, disorder chronicity, and comorbidity and after correcting for multiple testing, 30 of the 236 maternal diagnoses tested were significantly associated with autism, including obstetric, cardiometabolic, and psychiatric disorders. However, in the majority of the observed associations, family-based analyses accounting for familial factors such as genetics and environmental exposure to pollution provided strong evidence for familial confounding. The only maternal diagnosis with a strong association with autism was pregnancy complications related to the fetus.
“Our study shows that there is no convincing evidence that any of these other diagnoses in the mother can cause autism,” study senior author Magdalena Janecka, Ph.D., also from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said in a statement. “Our interpretation is that these fetal diagnoses likely do not cause autism, but are instead early signs of it.”
One author is currently employed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.
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