Low Birth Weight, Preterm Delivery May Raise Autism Risk

Low birth weight and preterm delivery increase the likelihood that a child will be autistic, with girls being at particular risk, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

“Pediatricians are probably sensitive to the fact that low birth weight children or children born too soon have special developmental needs,” researcher Dr. Diana Schendel of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told Reuters Health.

“This study simply supports that they should not overlook the behavioral aspects of development.”

She noted that while boys far outnumber girls in the general population of children with autism, physicians “may need to be aware that they will see more equal numbers of boys and girls” with autism among low birth weight and preterm children, based on the current findings.

The researchers found that among low-birth-weight and preterm children, autism was less common than other developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and hearing or vision loss.

However, children born weighing less than 2,500 grams — or roughly 5.5 pounds — had about twice the risk of autism as those with a normal birth weight. Similarly, children born before the 33rd week of pregnancy were twice as likely to develop the disorder as those born at full-term.

More information at Reuters