Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor's University, No. 1 Jalan Taylor's, Subang Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Hospital Melaka, Jalan Mufti Haji Khalil, 75400 Melaka, Malaysia
  • 3 Hospital Shah Alam, Persiaran Kayangan, Seksyen 7, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, 53100 Jalan Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, 62529, Saudi Arabia
Heliyon, 2020 Oct;6(10):e05068.
PMID: 33083595 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05068

Abstract

Rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the last decades has led research to focus on the diagnosis and identification of factors associated with ASD. This paper sought for possible factors that put children at risk for ASD. In this study, we investigated the association between ASD and parental ages, parental age gaps, birth order and birth delivery method in Malaysian population. In this school-based case control study, 465 children with ASD 464 controls participated. Questionnaires were distributed to the parents of the selected children through the respective principals. Among the tested variables, Caesarean section (OR = 1.63, 95% CI 1.20, 2.20), earlier order of birth in the family (OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.59, 0.77) and increasing gap in parental ages (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.001, 1.07) were significantly associated with ASD. This study concludes that Caesarean section, earlier order of birth in the family and increasing gap in parental age are independent risk factors for developing autism among Malaysian children.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.