Preterm birth and small for gestational age potentiate the association between maternal hypertensive pregnancy and childhood autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: Children of mothers with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) have high rates of preterm-birth (gestational age  < 37 weeks) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA), both of which are risk factors of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study tested the multiple-hit hypothesis that preterm-birth and SGA in the neonatal period might potentiate the antenatal impact of HDP to increase childhood ASD hazards, and HDP might not be a major contributor. The propensity-score-matched cohort enrolled 18,131 mother-child pairs with HDP and 90,655 normotensive controls between 2004 and 2011. Children with siblings born to the same mothers were excluded for analysis to reduce the potential familial-genetic influence. HDP were classified into chronic-hypertension, gestational-hypertension, preeclampsia,

SUBMITTER: Wang LW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10264454 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature