Preemies at Higher Risk of Autism

Premature and low-weight births seems almost epidemic in this country, affecting about one in eight newborns-or more than 520,000 babies each year. Many of these babies will suffer long-term disabilities and are three times more likely to die before the age of one. Now a new study shows that early births and low-birth weight can double the risk of autism in children, and for baby girls the risk may increase by as much as five times. (Even though, within the limits of this study, the risk factor for girls was much higher, autism overall seems to favor the male gender.)

Autism is a brain disorder caused by a disturbance in psychological development-which affects the use of language, reaction to stimuli, interpretation of the world, and the formation of relationships-and will rear it's ugly head before the child reaches the age of three. According to the CDC, one in 150 children in the U.S. now suffers from autism or related disorders, and at present there is no cure.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 565 children with autism, born in Atlanta between 1986 and 1993, and compared them to children without autism. Comparisons showed that baby girls born under 5.5 pounds had risk factors of 3.5 times normal births and the earlier the birth the higher the risk became-earlier than 7 weeks-the risk of developing autism increased by 5.4 times. Neither factor seemed to reflect a significant difference in the risk factor for male babies.

The cause for autism is yet unknown, although genetics and environmental surroundings probably play roles-other risk factors may be older fathers and toxins in the environment. The relevance of these findings said lead author Diana Schendel, health scientist at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, is that there is strong indication that boys and girls have different risk factors for developing autism. The findings of this study are published in the June issue of Pediatrics.

"This gives us more clues [about autism], which we desperately need, but it's not anything clinicians can use right away," said Dr. Cindy Molloy, an autism researcher and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but it reinforces the importance of monitoring children for behavioral problems who are born underweight or early.

According to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, some three to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism, while males are four times more likely to develop the disorder than girls.