Prenatal Vitamins May Reduce Autism Risk

DAVIS, Calif.According to a new study, periconceptional use of prenatal vitamins may reduce the risk of having children with autism, especially for genetically susceptible mothers and children (Epidemiology. 2011; 22(4):476-485). Northern California families were enrolled from 2003 to 2009 in the CHARGE (Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment) population-based case-control study. Children aged 24 to 60 months were evaluated and confirmed to have autism (n=288), autism spectrum disorder (n=141) or typical development (n=278) at the University of CaliforniaDavis Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute using standardized clinical assessments. Researchers calculated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for associations between autism and retrospectively collected data on maternal vitamin intake before and during pregnancy.

According to the study results, mothers of children with autism were less likely than those of typically developing children to report having taken prenatal vitamins during the three months before pregnancy or the first month of pregnancy. Significant interaction effects were observed for maternal and child genotypes, with greater risk for autism when mothers did not report taking prenatal vitamins periconceptionally. Greater risk was also observed for children whose mothers had other one-carbon metabolism pathway gene variants and reported no prenatal vitamin intake.