autism

NIH Program Study Finds Association Between Prenatal Obesity and Child Autism-Related Behaviors

Posted on by Jodi Snare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

According to a new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study, there may be an association between certain conditions during a mother’s pregnancy, such as obesity and gestational diabetes, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)-related behaviors in childhood.

The study included nearly 7,000 participants from 40 NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohorts. Eight of the cohorts included participants with increased likelihood of ASD. Researchers collected data on maternal health conditions during pregnancy, child autism-related social behaviors, and participant demographics.

The study suggested that maternal obesity and gestational diabetes were associated with indicators of autism-related social behaviors. Investigators did not see increases in these behaviors for children of mothers with preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. There was no strong evidence to suggest that ASD-related traits were related to preterm birth or low birth weight, which are common complications of these pregnancy conditions.

Learn more about this research through the affiliated flash talk.

“Investigating how exposures, health conditions, and risk factors relate across the full range of the outcome distribution may help us learn more about the nature of these relationships and their impact on the population,” said Kristen Lyall, ScD of Drexel University.

Dr. Lyall and Christine Ladd-Acosta, PhD of Johns Hopkins University, are both ECHO Program investigators and led this collaborative effort. Their research is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

“Our results highlight the need for better prenatal care and more monitoring of women experiencing conditions like obesity during pregnancy,” said Dr. Ladd-Acosta.

Lyall, K. et al. Cardiometabolic Pregnancy Complications in Association with Autism-Related Traits as Measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale in ECHO. American Journal of Epidemiology. DOI 10.1093/aje/kwac061 (2022)

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About ECHO: ECHO is a nationwide research program supported by the NIH. Launched in 2016, ECHO aims to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.

Media Contacts

For information or to request an interview, contact Rebekah Yeager,  rebekah.yeager@nih.gov.

If you are not a member of the media, but have a general inquiry, please contact  NIHKidsandEnvironment@od.nih.gov.

Connect With Us

echo connectorCheck out the recent issues of our bi-monthly newsletter, the ECHO Connector, for program news and the latest research findings.

To receive the ECHO Connector through email, subscribe here.

Follow @ECHOChildHealth for the latest ECHO Program updates on Twitter.

ECHO Investigators Find Association Between Prenatal Obesity and Child Autism-related Behaviors

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Collaborative ECHO research from Kristen Lyall, ScD of Drexel University and Christine Ladd-Acosta, PhD of Johns Hopkins University found an association between childhood autism-related social behaviors and maternal obesity and gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

The researchers examined the link between child social development and a variety of maternal prenatal conditions—including obesity, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and preeclampsia. Their research, titled “Cardiometabolic pregnancy complications in association with autism-related traits as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale in ECHO,” is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and aims to help better understand how a variety of risk factors during pregnancy relate to complex developmental outcomes, such as autism-related traits.

“Just like intelligence scores or height can be plotted on a curve representing everyone’s values ranging from low to high, social functioning and behaviors can also be measured and scored along a similar distribution,” said Dr. Lyall. “Investigating how exposures, health conditions, and risk factors relate across the full range of the outcome distribution may help us learn more about the nature of these relationships and their impact on the population.”

The study involved nearly 7,000 participants from 40 ECHO cohorts, including eight cohorts that had participants with increased likelihood of autism. The researchers collected data on maternal health conditions during pregnancy, maternal age, child autism-related social behaviors, and participant demographics.

Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes are common prenatal conditions, so understanding the impacts of these conditions on children development is an important public health issue. “This work shows that these conditions are not only linked with diagnoses of autism and other developmental conditions, but also subtler changes in related behavioral scores,” said Dr. Ladd-Acosta. “These results highlight the need for better prenatal care and more monitoring of women experiencing conditions like obesity during pregnancy.”

More work is needed in the future to reveal the specific mechanisms linking maternal prenatal health to childhood autism-related social development.

Read the research summary.

Rebecca Schmidt: Leveraging the ECHO Population to Examine Trends in Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Conditions

Rebecca Schmidt: Leveraging the ECHO Population to Examine Trends in Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Conditions

ECHO Discovery Summary

On April 20, Rebecca Schmidt, PhD of the University of California Davis School of Medicine presented on leveraging ECHO’s large and diverse population of children to evaluate nationwide trends in autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

Previously, it has been difficult for researchers to study the epidemiology—the distribution and determinants—of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) because standards and practices for screening and diagnosis are variable. The ECHO-wide protocol allows researchers to track nationwide trends in ASD diagnosis and autism-related traits, collected through caregiver-reported scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). The use of standardized, harmonized measures like the SRS makes it easier for ECHO researchers to track ASD trends across time and geography without the complications presented by differences in awareness and access to care.

ECHO also includes several cohorts recruiting children with autism diagnoses and those who are at higher risk for ASD. These cohorts help researcher better evaluate the risk factors and neurodevelopmental trajectories associated with ASD.

Speaker:

Rebecca J. Schmidt, PhD

University of California Davis School of Medicine

 

 

Speaker Bio:

Rebecca J. Schmidt is a tenured associate professor and molecular epidemiologist in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the MIND Institute at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, completed the postdoctoral Autism Research Training Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute, and was a Building Interdisciplinary Research Career in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) scholar. Dr. Schmidt aims to advance understanding of how early life environmental exposures interact with genetic susceptibility, molecular mechanisms, and developmental programming to influence neurodevelopmental outcomes of children. Her pioneering work includes finding some of the first evidence in the autism field for a potentially protective effect of folic acid-rich prenatal vitamins, evidence for gene x environment interactions, and protective interactions between folate and environmental contaminants. She co-developed the Early Life Environmental Exposure Assessment Tool (ELEAT). In addition to leading the MARBLES high-risk autism sibling pregnancy cohort study and biorepository, Dr. Schmidt leads a wildfire pregnancy cohort study, is site-lead for follow-up of children at older ages in the national ECHO cohort study, and co-leads several mechanistic autism studies, including epidemiologic examinations of mitochondrial, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic variations in relation to neurodevelopmental outcomes.

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Date: Wednesday, April 20th, 1 to 2pm ET

NIH Program Study Links Smoking in Pregnant Moms to Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children

Posted on by Jodi Snare
PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Smoking before or during pregnancy may be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits, such as symptoms of social impairments, according to a new study of approximately 11,000 children funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study also observed that full-term babies whose mothers smoked before and during pregnancy had a 44 percent increased risk of receiving an ASD diagnosis later in childhood. The research, titled “Maternal Tobacco Smoking and Offspring Autism Spectrum Disorder or Traits in ECHO Cohorts,” is published in Autism Research.

Rashelle J. Musci, Ph.D. of Johns Hopkins University and Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D. of the University of California, Davis, led this collaborative effort as investigators in the NIH-funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

The research team gathered information from children in 13 ECHO cohorts across the U.S. Each cohort either collected diagnoses for ASD, administered the Social Responsiveness Scale to determine social impairments in the children, or both. All cohorts also collected data on the mothers’ prenatal smoking habits and potential confounding variables.

“Future studies can help determine the specific prenatal period at which infants are most susceptible to cigarette smoke exposure and other factors, such as lifestyle habits or paternal smoking, that may influence the child’s development,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

Hertz-Picciotto, I. et al. Maternal Tobacco Smoking and Offspring Autism Spectrum Disorder or Traits in ECHO Cohorts. Autism Research. DOI 10.1002/aur.2693 (2022)

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About ECHO: ECHO is a nationwide research program supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Launched in 2016, ECHO aims to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. The program consists of two major components, including 69 existing and ongoing observational study cohorts and a pediatric clinical trials network. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Media Contacts

For information or to request an interview, contact Rebekah Yeager,  rebekah.yeager@nih.gov.

If you are not a member of the media, but have a general inquiry, please contact  NIHKidsandEnvironment@od.nih.gov.

Connect With Us

echo connectorCheck out the recent issues of our bi-monthly newsletter, the ECHO Connector, for program news and the latest research findings.

To receive the ECHO Connector through email, subscribe here.

Follow @ECHOChildHealth for the latest ECHO Program updates on Twitter.

ECHO Study Links Prenatal Tobacco Exposure to Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Through a collaborative research effort, Rashelle J. Musci, PhD of Johns Hopkins University and Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD of the University of California, Davis found that maternal tobacco use before or during pregnancy was associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits, such as symptoms of social impairment. Examples of social, communication, or other behaviors among individuals with ASD include little or no eye contact, difficulty with engaging in conversation, insistence on doing things the exact same way, repetitively, or having a narrow set of interests. Additionally, the researchers found that full-term babies whose mothers smoked before or during pregnancy had a 44% increased risk of receiving an ASD diagnosis later in childhood. Their research, titled “Maternal Tobacco Smoking and Offspring Autism Spectrum Disorder or Traits in ECHO Cohorts” is published in Autism Research.

“Previous studies provide varying results on how tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy affects a child’s risk for autism,” said Dr. Hertz-Picciotto, highlighting the importance of this research.

To collect data, the research team gathered information from approximately 11,000 children in 13 cohorts across the United States. Each of the cohorts either collected diagnoses for ASD or administered the Social Responsiveness Scale to determine social impairments in the children, or both. The research team studied each cohort individually and combined these findings to come up with an overall result. It also collected data on the mothers’ prenatal smoking habits and other potential confounding variables.

“This study adds to existing evidence that suggests that by ceasing smoking before or during pregnancy, the mother benefits her child,” noted lead author Dr. Musci.

Future studies can help determine the specific prenatal period at which infants are most susceptible to cigarette smoke exposure and other factors, such as lifestyle habits or paternal smoking, that may influence the child’s development.

Read the research summary.

Manish Arora: Application of Tooth Matrix Biomarkers to Environmental Biodynamics

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Application of Tooth Matrix Biomarkers to Environmental Biodynamics

Speakers:

Manish Arora, PhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

 

 

 

 

Speaker Bio: 

Dr. Arora is an exposure biologist and environmental epidemiologist with training in advanced analytical chemistry methods. He was awarded an Australian government scholarship to study the uptake of environmental metal toxicants and its impact on human health. He was later accepted as postdoctoral fellow at the Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology program at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is current a Professor and Vice Chairman of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, as well as Division Chief of Environmental Health, and Director of the Laboratory for Exposomic Innovation and Precision Environmental Medicine.

Dr. Arora has developed sophisticated laboratory methods to measure chemical signatures in teeth and hair as markers of environmental chemical exposures, with a focus on reconstructing early life exposure history.

Date: Wednesday, January 13, 1 to 2pm

 

Slides

ECHO Researchers Explore Validity of Shortened Social Communication Questionnaire

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Are short questionnaires as valid as longer versions when identifying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other social communication behaviors?

Kristen Lyall, Sc. D.

ECHO researchers Kristen Lyall, Craig Newschaffer, and others hoped to answer this question in their research titled, “Distributional properties and criterion validity of a shortened version of the Social Responsiveness Scale: Results from the ECHO program and implications for social communication research.” This publication, featured in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, examines how well a shortened version of a social communication questionnaire identified behaviors related to ASD and social communication compared to the longer, established version.

More than 3,000 parents from across the United States participated in this study, nearly 200 of which had a child with ASD.

In all, the team found that the short form did well predicting ASD diagnosis and measuring social communication behaviors. These results suggest that shorter surveys can provide correct information about ASD, which would be quicker and easier for the participant to complete. However, more research is needed to see how the short questionnaire compares in other ways to the longer version.

This work is especially important because it may help address the needs of people who do not have autism but face challenges in social communication and could benefit from help. Additionally, it may help reduce the time it takes to complete surveys while still accurately capturing and addressing social communication challenges in those with and without ASD.

For more information, read the study summary.

Heather Volk: Moving ECHO Science Toward Gene-Environment Interaction for Neurodevelopmental Outcomes

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Moving ECHO Science Toward Gene-Environment Interaction for Neurodevelopmental Outcomes

Speaker:

Heather Volk. PhD, MPH

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

 

 

 

Speaker Bio: Heather E. Volk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also Co-Director of the NICHD-funded Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Associate Director for Environmental Epidemiology in the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research. Dr. Volk additionally is co-Director of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Traning program, supported by a Institutional Training grant (T32) from the National Institute of Mental Health. She also holds a joint appointment in the School’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Dr. Volk earned a MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Boston University and a PhD in Public Health Studies (Epidemiology) at Saint Louis University, prior to post-doctoral training in Enviornmental Genomics through the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC).  She, along with her team, studies how environmental and genetic factors work together to confer risk for neurodevelopmental outcomes, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  She is the PI of several NIH-funded research grants which examine how environmental exposures (air pollution, metals) effect brain development, epidemiologic studies of comorbidity with ASD, and leads investigations into joint genetic, epigenetic, and environmental risks for ASD.  Dr. Volk additionally serves as co-PI for the Autism Spectrum Disorder Enriched Risk ECHO Cohort, a collaboration of nine cohorts of infants at high-familial risk for ASD.

Date: Wednesday, September 9, 1 to 2pm

Slides