Women with larger waists more likely to have children with autism: study

There could be a link between autism and pre-motherhood obesity, a new study suggests.

Women with an unhealthy wide waistline before pregnancy are at risk of delivering babies with autism. Researchers at Northwestern University feel the rising rate of obesity globally is related to more autism diagnoses.

This finding was presented at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Chicago.

"Children born to mothers with a waist of 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) or more before pregnancy showed a 65 percent increase in the risk of autism than those born to a mother with a smaller waist," lead author Dr Geum Joon Cho, visiting scholar of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago, was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

"It is assumed there are multiple factors that cause autism, both inherited and environmental. Of the environmental risk factors, emerging evidence has linked maternal pre-pregnancy obesity to the risk of autism in offspring. However, other studies have reported no associations between the two conditions. We wanted to investigate this association further," said Dr Cho.

Dr Cho and her team analyzed data on 36,451 mothers who each gave birth between 2007 and 2008 before they came to this conclusion. Quite a number of women in that group were classed as obese using the body mass index alone. But there were just a few who had an obese waist circumference.

Researchers also tracked the babies delivered by these women and found 265 of them had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Obesity as measured by BMI had no correlation with autism, but about 65 percent of babies diagnosed with autism were born to mothers with an obese waist circumference.

According to Dr Cho the link is likely due to inflammation.

"Both intrauterine inflammation and fetal brain inflammation are implicated in the development of autism,' Dr Cho said. "As obesity increases, circulating immune system proteins called inflammatory cytokines in pregnant women and the inflammation associated with maternal obesity may be related to the development of autism. Waist circumference, as a measure of central obesity, is associated with an increase in inflammatory cytokines, which is known to be involved in the development of autism."

"The findings suggest the need for clinicians to monitor for maternal obesity, based on waist circumference, to minimize the risk of development of autism spectrum disorder in offspring," Dr Cho said.