Study reports that COVID pandemic did not increase odds of ASD in children

A large-scale study by researchers in the United States suggests that maternal COVID infections during the pandemic did not increase the likelihood of children developing autism. The study also found that exposure to the overall “COVID milieu”—that is, the restrictions and societal changes that occurred during the pandemic—did not appear to have an effect on a child’s odds of developing ASD.

Morgan Firestein and colleagues analyzed data from two large cohorts of children born in New York. These included children born before the pandemic, children born during the pandemic, and children either exposed or unexposed to maternal COVID infection in utero. The COMBO-EHR cohort included 1,664 children, while the COMBO-RSCH cohort included 385 children.

To explore the possible effects of maternal COVID infection or pandemic-related societal changes on autism risk, the researchers looked at the children’s scores on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised (MCHAT-R). A positive MCHAT-R score indicates an elevated risk of autism.

The researchers say, “We found no increase in positive screening rates for autism for children born during the pandemic compared with children born before the pandemic.” There was no link between prenatal exposure to maternal COVID infection and ASD in the COMBO-RSCH group, and there was actually a lower rate of MCHAT-R positivity in prenatally exposed children in the COMBO-EHR cohort. The researchers caution, however, that their study primarily included mothers with mild illness, and say that “additional exploration of the relationship between severity of infection and neurodevelopment is needed.”

Citations

“Positive autism screening rates in toddlers born during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Morgan R. Firestein, Angela Manessis, Jennifer M. Warmingham, Ruiyang Xu, Yunzhe Hu, Morgan A. Finkel, Margaret Kyle, Maha Hussain, Imaal Ahmed, Andréane Lavallée, Ana Solis, Vitoria Chaves, Cynthia Rodriguez, Sylvie Goldman, Rebecca A. Muhle, Seonjoo Lee, Judy Austin, Wendy G. Silver, Kally C. O’Reilly, Jennifer M. Bain, Anna A. Penn, Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, Melissa S. Stockwell, William P. Fifer, Rachel Marsh, Catherine Monk, Lauren C. Shuffrey, and Dani Dumitriu, JAMA Network Open, September 3, 2024 (free online). Address: Dani Dumitriu, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 3 Columbus Circle, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10019, [email protected].