FONTANA >> Research conducted using medical records of 322,000 children born at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in Southern California shows that diabetes in early pregnancy will increase a child’s risk for developing autism.
The findings were published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Children born from mothers who developed gestational diabetes by the 26th week of pregnancy were 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with autism, said Dr. Edward Curry, a pediatrician at Kaiser Fontana, who was the study’s co-author.
One of the study’s messages, Curry said in a telephone interview, is that women should be monitored by a doctor in the early stages of pregnancy.
“Another message is that parents (where gestational diabetes happens early in pregnancy) should be vigilant in monitoring children for early signs of autism,” he said.
One of the surprises in the study was that if gestational diabetes occurs after the first 26 weeks, the risk for autism is equal to the general population, Curry said.
In the United States, autism effects about one in 68 children, he said.
Gestational diabetes is thought to affect up to 14 percent of U.S. pregnancies, he said.
It may be that the high sugar levels cause some developmental flaws in the fetal development of the brain area that controls communication and social behavior, Curry said,
“This is really just an observational study,” Curry said. “The next step, for someone else, is to find the true mechanism of why this is happening.”
The study used medical records and just looked at autism in cases of early gestational diabetes, he said.
Other studies could research other medical questions using the same patient data for the period between 1995 and 2010, Curry said.
Working with Curry was Anny Xiang, a Kaiser Permanente researcher based in Pasadena.