3-generation family histories of mental, neurologic, cardiometabolic, birth defect, asthma, allergy, and autoimmune conditions associated with autism: An open-source catalog of findings

Diana Schendel, Linda Ejlskov, Morten Overgaard, Zeal Jinwala, Viktor Kim, Erik Parner, Amy E Kalkbrenner, Christine Ladd Acosta, M Danielle Fallin, Sherlly Xie, Preben Bo Mortensen, Brian K Lee

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The relatively few conditions and family member types (e.g., sibling, parent) considered in investigations of family health history in autism spectrum disorder (ASD, or autism) limits understanding of the role of family history in autism etiology. For more comprehensive understanding and hypothesis-generation, we produced an open-source catalog of autism associations with family histories of mental, neurologic, cardiometabolic, birth defect, asthma, allergy, and autoimmune conditions. All live births in Denmark, 1980-2012, of Denmark-born parents (1,697,231 births), and their 3-generation family members were followed through April 10, 2017 for each of 90 diagnoses (including autism), emigration or death. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) were estimated via Cox regression for each diagnosis-family member type combination, adjusting for birth year, sex, birth weight, gestational age, parental ages at birth, and number of family member types of index person; aHRs also calculated for sex-specific co-occurrence of each disorder. We obtained 6462 individual family history aHRS across autism overall (26,840 autistic persons; 1.6% of births), by sex, and considering intellectual disability (ID); and 350 individual co-occurrence aHRS. Results are cataloged in interactive heat maps and down-loadable data files: https://ncrr-au.shinyapps.io/asd-riskatlas/ and interactive graphic summaries: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/diana.schendel/viz/ASDPlots_16918786403110/e-Figure5. While primarily for reference material or use in other studies (e.g., meta-analyses), results revealed considerable breadth and variation in magnitude of familial health history associations with autism by type of condition, family member type, sex of the family member, side of the family, sex of the index person, and ID status, indicative of diverse genetic, familial, and nongenetic autism etiologic pathways. Careful attention to sources of autism likelihood in family health history, aided by our open data resource, may accelerate understanding of factors underlying neurodiversity.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAutism Research
Volume17
Issue10
Pages (from-to)2144-2155
Number of pages12
ISSN1939-3792
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2024

Keywords

  • allergy
  • asthma
  • autism
  • autoimmune
  • birth defect
  • cardiometabolic
  • family history
  • mental disorder
  • neurologic

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '3-generation family histories of mental, neurologic, cardiometabolic, birth defect, asthma, allergy, and autoimmune conditions associated with autism: An open-source catalog of findings'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this