Inducing labor is not associated with an increased risk for autism in children, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics. A previous study in 2013 found an association between the two and raised concern about induction of labor due to possible risk for autism.
According to a release from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health which led the new study, their findings suggest that the risk of autism should not be a concern when medical professionals are deciding whether or not to induce labor in pregnant women. The Harvard Chan School worked with other researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Indiana University.
Induced labour not associated with increased autism risk, researchers say https://t.co/Xijx4avVkl
— CBC Health News (@CBCHealth) July 25, 2016
Autism Study Examined A Million Births
CBC reported that this team of researchers looked into one million live births in Sweden in a decade, from 1995 to 2005 to see if there really is an association between induction of labor and autism risk. The team of researchers continued following the children up to 2013 and sought for traces of neuropsychiatric disabilities in the children.
Just like the previous 2013 study's findings, the researchers found an association between the induction of labor and risk for autism when they compared unrelated children. However, comparison of siblings revealed no association of induced labor and risk for autism. The children referred in the latter were in cases were one child was delivered by induced labor and another was not.
Labor Induction And Autism
Among the millions of children followed by the researchers, 22,077 or 1.6 percent were diagnosed to have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when they reached eight to 21 years old, reported Medical News Today. Among these births, 11 percent were from induced labor that were usually brought about by pregnancy complications.
"Many of the factors that could lead to both induction of labor and autism are completely or partially shared by siblings - such as maternal characteristics or socioeconomic or genetic factors. Finding no association when comparing siblings suggests that previously observed associations could have been due to some of these familial factors - not the result of induction," lead author Anna Sara Oberg was quoted as saying. Oberg is a research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School.
