International Meeting for Autism Research: The Association of Maternal Infection Requiring Hospitalization During Pregnancy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Explorative Danish Cohort Study

The Association of Maternal Infection Requiring Hospitalization During Pregnancy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Explorative Danish Cohort Study

Saturday, May 22, 2010
Franklin Hall B Level 4 (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown)
9:00 AM
H. Ó. Atladóttir , University of Aarhus, Institut of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Aarhus, Denmark
P. Thorsen , Atlanta
L. Østergaard , Department of Infectious Diseases, Skejby Hospital, Aarhus
D. E. Schendel , Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, GA
S. Lemcke , Regional Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark
M. Abdallah , Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
E. Parner , Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark
Background: Maternal infection during pregnancy has been suggested to cause adverse fetal brain development.
Objectives: Estimate the association between maternal exposure to hospitalization for infection during pregnancy, and diagnosis of ASDs in the offspring.
Methods: This population based cohort study included all children born in Denmark from January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2005, a total of 1,612,342 children. Diagnoses of ASDs were obtained from the Danish National Psychiatric Register. Diagnoses of maternal infection were obtained from the Danish National Hospital Register. Data was analysed using Cox proportional hazards regression.
Results: A total of 10,133 children were diagnosed with ASDs. No association was found between maternal infection and diagnosis of ASDs in the child when looking at the total period of pregnancy; any maternal infection: adjusted HR=1.13 (CI: 0.96-1.34). However, admission to hospital due to maternal viral infection in the first trimester: adjusted HR=2.98 (CI: 1.29-7.15), and maternal bacterial infection in the second trimester: adjusted HR=1.43 (CI: 1.08-1.88), were found to be associated with diagnosis of ASDs in the offspring.
Conclusions: We observed no overall association between a variety of maternal infections requiring hospitalization during the total length of the pregnancy and diagnosis of ASDs in the child.  However, the results support prior hypotheses concerning early prenatal viral infection increasing the risk of ASDs.
See more of: Epidemiology
See more of: Clinical & Genetic Studies