Effect of Low Birth Weight and Preterm Birth on Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Effect of Low Birth Weight and Preterm Birth on Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Purpose: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the social, communication, and developmental abilities of a person (CDC, 2015). There are still a lot of unknowns regarding ASD, however it is hypothesized that low birth weight and preterm birth are risk factors for ASD. This study was done to assess if there was any association between low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth on the presence of ASD in children 2-17 years old. Methods: Secondary data analysis was done on the 2011-2012 NSCH survey, which had 95,677 child-level NSCH interviews completed nationally. 1,850 individual interviews were collected per state and the results were weighted to represent a national population of children ages 0-17 in each state. The sample was restricted to exclude children below the age of 2. A multivariable logistic regression model was done to see if there was a relationship between the presence of ASD and preterm birth and LBW, A second multivariate logistic regression model was done examining the presence of ASD with only preterm birth. Both models were statistically adjusted for gender, age of the child, maternal physical health, maternal mental health, race/ethnicity, health insurance, household income and type of insurance. Results: The key findings from this study were that preterm birth had a significant association with the presence of ASD, but LBW did not have any statistical significance. Children who were born preterm had a 2.045 [95% CI 1.491-2.806] greater odds of being diagnosed with ASD than children who were not born preterm. The covariate gender was also shown to be highly associated with ASD. Males had 4.529 [95% CI 3.464-5.923] times greater odds of being diagnosed with ASD than females. Conclusion: The results show that preterm birth was associated with the manifestation of ASD. There was no correlation between LBW and ASD found. The results also indicate that males are more frequently diagnosed with ASD than females. These results can be used to help show the importance of adequate prenatal care to help reduce the prevalence of preterm births, which can hopefully help to reduce the prevalence of ASD.