Increased risks of congenital, neurologic, and endocrine disorders associated with autism in preschool children: cognitive ability differences.

ABSTRACT

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. STUDY DESIGN: 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.