Autism in children and correlates in Lebanon: a pilot case-control study.
BACKGROUND
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder typically appearing before the age of three. The exact cause of autism remains uncertain, and several factors may be involved in its onset: genetic factors and possible environmental factors. The aim of this study was to assess the correlates of autism in the Lebanese population.


METHODS
We investigated the association of autism with several factors in 86 autism cases from specialized schools for children with developmental disabilities and 172 control children from regular public schools in the same regions. Several risk factors for autism were investigated after comparison with a cohort control on parental age, sex, maternal unhappy feeling during pregnancy, consanguineous marriage, and province of residence. The Chi-square test was used to compare nominal variables, and Fisher exact test was used in case expected values within cells were inferior to five. For quantitative variables, we used t-test to compare means between two groups, after checking their distribution normality. For multivariate analysis, we used a forward stepwise likelihood ratio logistic regression.


RESULTS
We observed male predominance (79.1%) among autistic infants. There was a significant association between autism and older parents age (OR=1.27), male sex (OR=3.38), unhappy maternal feeling during pregnancy (OR=5.77), living close to industry (OR=6.58), previous childhood infection (OR=8.85), but none concerning maternal age, paternal age and consanguinity.


CONCLUSIONS
In this pilot epidemiological study of autism in Lebanon, we found several prenatal and perinatal risk factors for autism that could be modified.
Department of Life and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Branch II, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. aline.hamade@ul.edu.lb.
Aline
A
Hamadé
Pascale
P
Salameh
Myrna
M
Medlej-Hashim
Elie
E
Hajj-Moussa
Nina
N
Saadallah-Zeidan
Francine
F
Rizk
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Autistic disorder; Consanguinity; Epidemiology; Lebanon; Risk factors