Most Significant Risk of the Disorder Linked to Early Pregnancy Exposure
A retrospective population-based clinical cohort study investigated the association between maternal preeclampsia and the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. By analyzing data from over 364,000 mother-child pairs, researchers found that preeclampsia, especially when occurring earlier in pregnancy, was linked to a higher risk of ASD in offspring. However, the study surprisingly revealed that the number of days from preeclampsia onset to delivery did not significantly affect ASD risk in children. This observation suggests that clinical management practices for preeclampsia, such as expectant management or early delivery, do not contribute additional risk to ASD development. These findings underscore the importance of identifying effective strategies to prevent preeclampsia onset, particularly in early pregnancy, to mitigate risks to both mothers and offspring. The researchers behind this study recommend further research to validate these results across diverse populations and clinical settings.
