Kids born throughout the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic—with or with out publicity to maternal infections—don’t appear to be at elevated threat for creating autism, in keeping with a brand new examine in JAMA Community Open.
“The size of the COVID pandemic had pediatricians, researchers, and developmental scientists anxious that we might see an uptick in autism charges. However reassuringly, we didn’t discover any indication of such a rise in our examine,” stated examine creator Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD, of Columbia College in a press launch from that establishment. “There was broad hypothesis about how the COVID technology is creating, and this examine provides us the primary glimmer of a solution with respect to autism threat.”
The examine relies on outcomes seen amongst greater than 1,500 kids born at NewYork-Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Kids’s Hospital and Allen Hospital from January 2018 to September 2021.
All kids within the examine have been screened for autism between 16 and 30 months of age. Kids born earlier than the pandemic have been in contrast with these born throughout the first 12 months of the pandemic.
Included within the examine have been 1,664 kids (442 born earlier than the pandemic and 1,222 born throughout the pandemic), of whom 997 weren’t uncovered to SARS-CoV-2 in utero, and 130 who have been uncovered to SARS-CoV-2. Ninety-five had unknown SARS-CoV-2 publicity standing. Digital well being data have been used to determine maternal an infection.
Sixteen % of youngsters have been Black, 59.6% have been Hispanic, and 24.0% have been White.
Pandemic stress linked to perceptions of kid conduct
The researchers discovered no distinction amongst pre-pandemic and pandemic charges of autism. Particularly, 100 kids (22.6%) born earlier than the pandemic and 283 kids (23.2%) born throughout the pandemic screened optimistic for autism, they wrote. The shortage of an affiliation was maintained in a totally adjusted mannequin (adjusted odds ratio 1.40; 95% confidence interval, 0.66 to three.23).
No affiliation was seen in pandemic-era births amongst uncovered and unexposed kids, however the pattern dimension was small, the authors wrote.
Our findings align with these of different stories exhibiting no or restricted associations between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 publicity and baby neurodevelopment.
“Our findings align with these of different stories exhibiting no or restricted associations between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 publicity and baby neurodevelopment,” the authors wrote.
Dumitriu stated excessive parental stress throughout the pandemic might have altered mother and father’ notion of toddler conduct. However for now, it appears the pandemic didn’t produce a spike in autism charges.
“Kids who have been within the womb early within the pandemic are actually reaching the age when early indicators of autism would emerge, and we’re not seeing them on this examine,” Dumitriu stated. “And since it is well-known that autism is influenced by the prenatal surroundings, that is extremely reassuring.”
