and advanced paternal age at delivery (greater than 30 year-old).

J Autism Dev Disord. 2010 Apr 1. [Epub ahead of print]

Prenatal and Perinatal Risk Factors for Autism in China.
Zhang X, Lv CC, Tian J, Miao RJ, Xi W, Hertz-Picciotto I, Qi L.

School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China.

We conducted a case-control study using 190 Han children with and without autism to investigate prenatal and perinatal risk factors for autism in China. Cases were recruited through public special education schools and controls from regular public schools in the same region (Tianjin), with frequency matching on sex and birth year. Unadjusted analyses identified seven prenatal and seven perinatal risk factors significantly associated with autism. In the adjusted analysis, nine risk factors showed significant association with autism: maternal second-hand smoke exposure, maternal chronic or acute medical conditions unrelated to pregnancy, maternal unhappy emotional state, gestational complications, edema, abnormal gestational age (<35 or >42 weeks), nuchal cord, gravidity >1, and advanced paternal age at delivery (>30 year-old).

PMID: 20358271 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]