Association between mothers' body mass index before pregnancy or weight gain during pregnancy and autism in children.

Ziyu Ling; Jianmin Wang; Xia LI; Yan Zhong; Yuanyuan Qin; Shengnan Xie; Senbei Yang; Jing Zhang; Email: Fyebzj@126com

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Association between mothers' body mass index before pregnancy or weight gain during pregnancy and autism in children.

Author: Ziyu LING ¹ ; Jianmin WANG ¹ ; Xia LI ¹ ; Yan ZHONG ² ; Yuanyuan QIN ¹ ; Shengnan XIE ¹ ; Senbei YANG ¹ ; Jing ZHANG ³ ; Email: FYEBZJ@126.COM.
Author Information

1. Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
2. Hunan Children's Hospital.
3. Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Publication Type:Journal Article
From: Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 2015;36(9):949-952
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract:
OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between mothers' body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy or weight gain during pregnancy and autism in children.
METHODSFrom 2013 to 2014, the 181 children with autism and 181 healthy children matched by sex and age from same area were included in this study. According to mothers' BMI before pregnancy, the selected cases were divided into 3 groups: low, normal and high group. Then 3 groups were divided into 3 subgroups based on mother' s weight gain during pregnancy: low, normal and high group, according to the recommendations of Institute of Medicine. Logistic regression analysis and χ(2) test were conducted with SPSS 18.0 software to analysis the relationship between mothers' BMI before pregnancy or weight gain during pregnancy and autism in children.
RESULTSThe age and sex distributions of case group and control group were consistent (χ(2)=0.434, P>0.05). The mothers' BMI before pregnancy of case group was higher than that of control group (χ(2)=9.580, P<0.05) ,which was (21.28±3.80) kg/m(2) for case group and (19.87±2.83) kg/m(2) for control group. The proportion of cases in high BMI group (10.5%) was much higher than that in control group (2.8%) . The risk of children with autism in high BMI group was 3.7 times higher than that in normal BMI group (OR=3.71, 95% CI: 1.34-10.24). In normal BMI group, the proportion of mothers who had excessive weight gain during pregnancy was higher in case group (44.1%) than in control group (33.9%). In high BMI group, the proportion of mothers who had excessive weight gain was higher in case group (52.6%) than in control group (20.0%) . In normal BMI group (χ(2) =8.690, P<0.05) and high BMI group (χ(2)=4.775, P<0.05), the weight gain during pregnancy was associated with autism in children. Logistic regression analysis showed that mothers' BMI before pregnancy (unadjusted OR=1.89, 95% CI: 1.26-2.85, adjusted OR=1.52, 95% CI: 1.19-2.27) and weight gain during pregnancy were the risk factors for autism in children (unadjusted OR=1.63, 95% CI: 1.08-1.25, adjusted OR=1.64, 95% CI: 1.21-2.21).
CONCLUSIONOverweight or obesity before pregnancy and excessive weight gain during pregnancy were associated with autism in children, suggesting that women who plan to be pregnant should pay attention to body weight control.