There is no evidence that mother’s health during pregnancy is related to autism, according to a study

Unlike what happens in the United States, where medical records are usually dispersed among the different medical professionals to whom a person goes throughout his life, in Denmark all the medical records of a person are consolidated under a single number issued by the Government, which allowed researchers Check if each woman had more than 1,700 diagnoses different according to international standards, known as CIE-10 codes.

From them, the researchers focused their analysis on the results of pregnancy tests. From them, the researchers focused their analysis on those diagnosed on at least 0.1% of pregnancies (236 diagnoses).

For the study, the researchers corrected the factors that could confuse, or offer an alternative explanation, of the relationship between the diagnosis that a woman and the diagnosis of autism from her child received. These factors include sociodemographic status and mother’s age during pregnancy, since children of older mothers They are more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and their mothers are also more likely to receive certain diagnoses, such as hypertension, than their youngest counterparts.

After taking into account these confusion factors, as well as the concurrent diagnoses, 30 were still statistically associated with autism in the child. To determine if they coincided with autism instead of causing it, the researchers included in the analysis of the Children’s Brothers autistic.

If a mother was diagnosed with the same disease during pregnancies of children with and without autism, that would suggest that There were different factors of their diagnosis that influenced the relationship with autism. This step allowed to separate conditions that could be attributed to family factors, such as genetics and environmental exposure to pollution, which could be causing autism.

The importance of genetics

According to researchers, genetics is an important factor of family confusion (plausible explanation) of autism. Certain genes that increase the risk of a person suffer depression They are also more closely related to autism. If a woman suffers an episode of depression during pregnancy and her son is autistic, it is much more likely that mother and son share genes causing both conditions, instead that the chemical effects of depression somehow affect the fetus to cause her Autism during development.

The researchers also analyzed the Parent medical records. Most likely, any relationship between a paternal diagnosis and autism is due to family factors, since the direct effects of the father on the fetus after conception are very limited. In fact, the researchers observed that many paternal diagnoses are as related to child autism as maternal.

After taking into account family factors, the only maternal diagnosis that was still closely Autism related From the statistical point of view they were the complications of pregnancy related to the fetus.

“Many mothers of autistic children feel guilty for it. They think they did something wrong during pregnancy, and It is heartbreaking. I think that demonstrating that these things will not cause autism is important and can lead to more effective ways to support autistic children and their families, “said Janeckka.

Autism is a development disorder that usually appears in childhood and is characterized by a series of difficulties in social interactions and repetitive behaviors. The symptoms They vary widely to adulthoodbut they can include reduced visual contact, reluctance to participate in recreational activities, repetition of gestures or sounds and indifference to extreme temperatures.