Abstract

Febrile seizure (FS) is the most prevalent childhood seizure; it is significantly related to subsequent epilepsy and has possible links to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Separately, premature births are believed to increase the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, this study investigated whether preterm birth is a risk factor for subsequent epilepsy, ASD, and ADHD in children with FS. We retrospectively collected data for children aged < 5 years with FS from 1 January 2005, to 31 December 2013. We divided these children into two groups—the premature birth group and the full-term group—and compared their incidence rates of epilepsy, ASD and ADHD. The data of 426 patients with history of febrile convulsion were retrospectively collected. The premature birth group (FS+/preterm+) had 108 patients and the full-term group (FS+/preterm−) had 318 patients. The overall epilepsy risk in the FS+/preterm+ group was higher than in the FS+/preterm− group (odds ratio [OR], 2.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–5.58; p = 0.02). The overall risk of ADHD in the FS+/preterm+ group was higher than that in the FS+/preterm− group (OR, 6.41; 95% CI, 3.39–12.09; p = 0.0001). In addition, children with FS+/preterm+ had 16.9 times (95% CI, 4.79–59.7; p = 0.0001) higher odds of having ASD compared with those with FS+/preterm−. Preterm birth may be a risk factor for subsequent epilepsy, ASD and ADHD in children with FS.

Highlights

  • We demonstrated that preterm children with Febrile seizure (FS) had a significantly increased incidence rate of subsequent epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with full-term children with FS

  • Our results showed that the trend of preterm birth acting as a risk factor for FS to the development of ASD and ADHD is much more evident than that of epilepsy

  • This study investigated whether preterm birth is a risk factor for subsequent epilepsy, ASD and ADHD in children with FS

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Summary

Introduction

ASD, which commonly manifests in the first years of life, is a disease with multifactorial etiology and typically manifests as social and communication impairments as well as stereotyped behaviors, whereas ADHD is characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. These disorders are thought to have a strong heritable component and identified risk factors include extremes of maternal or parental age, mothers with chemical intolerances, low socioeconomic status, prenatal exposure to smoking and alcohol and epilepsy [1,2,3,4,5,6,7].

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