Maternal Vitamin D Levels and the Autism Phenotype Among Offspring.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Whitehouse, Andrew, ; Holt, Barbara; Serralha, Michael; Holt, Patrick; Hart, Prue; Kusel, Merci
- Source
- Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders; Jul2013, Vol. 43 Issue 7, p1495-1504, 10p, 4 Charts, 1 Graph
- Subject
- Autism
Statistical correlation
Longitudinal method
Data analysis
Vitamin D deficiency
Analysis of variance
Chi-squared test
Confidence intervals
Epidemiology
Liquid chromatography
Mass spectrometry
Questionnaires
Regression analysis
Research funding
Scale analysis (Psychology)
Statistics
T-test (Statistics)
Vitamin D
Data analysis software
Descriptive statistics
Disease complications
Pregnancy
Vitamin deficiency
- Language
- ISSN
- 01623257
We tested whether maternal vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy is related to the autism phenotype. Serum 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations of 929 women were measured at 18 weeks' pregnancy. The mothers of the three children with a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder had 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations above the population mean. The offspring of 406 women completed the Autism-Spectrum Quotient in early adulthood. Maternal 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations were unrelated to offspring scores on the majority of scales. However, offspring of mothers with low 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations (<49 nmol/L) were at increased risk for 'high' scores (≥2SD above mean) on the Attention Switching subscale (odds ratio: 5.46, 95 % confidence interval: 1.29, 23.05). The involvement of maternal vitamin D during pregnancy in autism requires continued investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]