Prenatal, perinatal, postnatal risk factors, and excess screen time in autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate pre-, peri-, and postnatal factors, screen time in a group of patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and age and sex-matched clinical controls to evaluate risk factors specific to ASD. Methods: The study included 211 ASD patients (177 boys, 34 girls; mean age 44.3±13.0months) and 241 (190 boys, 51 girls; mean age 44.6±14.1months) age and sex group matched clinical controls. Non-ASD diagnoses were expressive language disorder (n = 135, 56.0%), intellectual disability (n = 15, 6.2%), attention deficithyperactivity disorder (n = 6, 2.4%), oppositional disorder (n = 6, 2.4%), and other behavioral or emotional problems (no diagnosis; n = 79, 32.8%). A sociodemographic data form was used to collect data regarding pre-, peri-, and postnatal factors and total daily screen exposure. Results: According to our findings, maternal severe psychological stress and depression during pregnancy, and maternal postpartum depression were more frequent in the ASD group (p =0.005, p =0.035, and p =0.001 respectively). There was a statistically significant difference between groups with regards to maternal any medication use during pregnancy (p =0.004). The mean duration of daily screen exposure was higher in the ASD group (9.90±5.10h) compared to non-ASD children (4.46±3.40 h; p <0.001). A ROC curve showed that 8.5h and above total daily screen exposure (AUC = 0.808 [95% CI: 0.769–0.848], p <0.001; 55% sensitivity, 90.5% specificity) is likely to be associated with increased risk for ASD. Conclusion: Our study suggests that prenatal maternal psychological stress, prenatal and postpartum depression, and excess exposure to screen might be related to an increased risk for ASD.