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Maternal Early Life Factors Associated with Hormone Levels and the Risk of Having a Child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Nurses Health Study II

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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 September 2010

Abstract

It is not known whether reproductive factors early in the mother’s life influence risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We assessed maternal age at menarche, menstrual cycle characteristics during adolescence, oral contraceptive use prior to first birth, body shape, and body mass index (BMI) in association with ASD using binomial regression in a cohort study of 61,596 women, including 743 cases. Overall, early life factors were not associated with ASD, though early age at menarche (RR for age 10 or less = 1.54, 95% CI 1.18, 2.02, p = 0.0002) and BMI at age 18 of ≥30 (RR 2.03, 95% CI 1.34, 3.08, p = 0.0008) were significantly associated with increased risk of ASD. Further work should investigate the potential influence of these factors.

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Acknowledgments

The Nurses’ Health Study II is an ongoing study conducted at the Channing Laboratory and affiliated with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School. The work reported in this manuscript was funded in part by CA50385, the main Nurses’ Health Study II grant, 1788 from the Autism Speaks Foundation, and A-14917 from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC). The funding organizations have reviewed and approved the design and conduct of the overall NHS II, but were not involved in the collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; nor were they involved in the preparation, review, or approval of this manuscript.

Conflicts of interest

No conflicts of interest are noted.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Kristen Lyall, David L. Pauls & Susan Santangelo

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    David L. Pauls & Susan Santangelo

  3. The Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    David L. Pauls & Susan Santangelo

  4. Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Donna Spiegelman

  5. Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Ave, Building II 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Alberto Ascherio

  6. Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, The Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Alberto Ascherio

Authors
  1. Kristen Lyall
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  2. David L. Pauls
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  3. Susan Santangelo
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  4. Donna Spiegelman
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  5. Alberto Ascherio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto Ascherio.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1097-5

Appendix

Appendix

Diagram used for estimating body shape at age 10

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Lyall, K., Pauls, D.L., Santangelo, S. et al. Maternal Early Life Factors Associated with Hormone Levels and the Risk of Having a Child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Nurses Health Study II. J Autism Dev Disord 41, 618–627 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1079-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1079-7

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