Abstract
Maternal immune activity has been linked to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined maternal occupational exposure to asthma-causing agents during pregnancy in relation to ASD risk. Our sample included 463 ASD cases and 710 general population controls from the Study to Explore Early Development whose mothers reported at least one job during pregnancy. Asthmagen exposure was estimated from a published job-exposure matrix. The adjusted odds ratio for ASD comparing asthmagen-exposed to unexposed was 1.39 (95 % CI 0.96–2.02). Maternal workplace asthmagen exposure was not associated with ASD risk in this study, but this result does not exclude some involvement of maternal exposure to asthma-causing agents in ASD.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2882-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Some evidence links increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with maternal asthma and allergy around the time of pregnancy (Croen et al 2005) and with maternal immune conditions in general (Comi et al 1999; Keil et al 2010; Sweeten et al 2003)
Since the effect of asthmagen exposure may differ depending on whether the mother has a history of asthma or allergy, we examined the association between occupational asthmagens and ASD among mothers with and without these conditions
Since risk factors for ASD may differ by subtype of ASD, we examined whether maternal occupational asthmagen exposure differed for ASD cases with and without intellectual disability compared to population controls
Summary
Some evidence links increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with maternal asthma and allergy around the time of pregnancy (Croen et al 2005) and with maternal immune conditions in general (Comi et al 1999; Keil et al 2010; Sweeten et al 2003). J Autism Dev Disord (2016) 46:3458–3468 exposures capable of causing asthma and immune reactions, such as air pollutant exposures to acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, styrene, and metals (Leikauf 2002), in increasing risk of ASD, though associations have not been consistently reported across studies (Volk et al 2011, 2013; Becerra et al 2013; von Ehrenstein et al 2014; Windham et al 2006, 2013; Kalkbrenner et al 2010; Roberts et al 2007, 2013; McCanlies et al 2012; Raz et al 2015). Some asthmagens cause asthma through immunologic pathways (e.g., latex antigens) whereas others act as irritants that result in airway damage (e.g., ammonia)
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