Increased risks of congenital, neurologic, and endocrine disorders associated with autism in preschool children: cognitive ability differences.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the increased risk of congenital, neurologic, and endocrine disorders in autistic preschool children and to probe possible cognitive impairment-associated variation in such risks.


METHODS
Using a population-based longitudinal study, a total of 3440 autistic children born in 1997-1999 and 33,391 age- and residential urbanicity-matched control subjects were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Conditional logistic analyses were performed to estimate the strength of association stratified by the presence of cognitive impairment.


RESULTS
Autistic children were found to have greatly elevated risks of congenital anomalies (eg, tuberous sclerosis: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 34 approximately 61) and neurologic disorders (eg, epilepsy: aOR = 5 approximately 13) compared with their matched nonautistic peers. The increased risk of medical diseases for mentally retarded autism were approximately 1.6 to 9 times greater than those for isolated autism.


CONCLUSIONS
The observed cognitive impairment-related variation in the increased risk of congenital, neurological, and endocrine disorders with autism may provide some clinical and etiologic implications that warrant investigation in the future.
Chen
Chuan-Yu
CY
Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Taiwan.
Chen
Kuang-Hung
KH
Liu
Chieh-Yu
CY
Huang
Su-Ling
SL
Lin
Keh-Ming
KM
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004700:Endocrine System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology