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Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment

A sharp rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence estimates, beginning in the 1990s, suggested factors additional to genetics were at play. This stimulated increased research investment in nongenetic factors, including the study of environmental chemical exposures, diet, nutrition, lifestyle...

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Autores principales: Singh, Anisha, Lawler, Cindy P., Walker, Vickie R., Pelch, Katherine E., Garton, Amanda E., Rooney, Andrew A., Haugen, Astrid C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10532575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37754843
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jox13030031
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author Singh, Anisha
Lawler, Cindy P.
Walker, Vickie R.
Pelch, Katherine E.
Garton, Amanda E.
Rooney, Andrew A.
Haugen, Astrid C.
author_facet Singh, Anisha
Lawler, Cindy P.
Walker, Vickie R.
Pelch, Katherine E.
Garton, Amanda E.
Rooney, Andrew A.
Haugen, Astrid C.
author_sort Singh, Anisha
collection PubMed
description A sharp rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence estimates, beginning in the 1990s, suggested factors additional to genetics were at play. This stimulated increased research investment in nongenetic factors, including the study of environmental chemical exposures, diet, nutrition, lifestyle, social factors, and maternal medical conditions. Consequently, both peer- and non-peer-reviewed bodies of evidence investigating environmental contributors to ASD etiology have grown significantly. The heterogeneity in the design and conduct of this research results in an inconclusive and unwieldy ‘virtual stack’ of publications. We propose to develop a Web-based tool for Autism Research and the Environment (aWARE) to comprehensively aggregate and assess these highly variable and often conflicting data. The interactive aWARE tool will use an approach for the development of systematic evidence maps (SEMs) to identify and display all available relevant published evidence, enabling users to explore multiple research questions within the scope of the SEM. Throughout tool development, listening sessions and workshops will be used to seek perspectives from the broader autism community. New evidence will be indexed in the tool annually, which will serve as a living resource to investigate the association between environmental factors and ASD.
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spelling pubmed-105325752023-09-28 Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment Singh, Anisha Lawler, Cindy P. Walker, Vickie R. Pelch, Katherine E. Garton, Amanda E. Rooney, Andrew A. Haugen, Astrid C. J Xenobiot Communication A sharp rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence estimates, beginning in the 1990s, suggested factors additional to genetics were at play. This stimulated increased research investment in nongenetic factors, including the study of environmental chemical exposures, diet, nutrition, lifestyle, social factors, and maternal medical conditions. Consequently, both peer- and non-peer-reviewed bodies of evidence investigating environmental contributors to ASD etiology have grown significantly. The heterogeneity in the design and conduct of this research results in an inconclusive and unwieldy ‘virtual stack’ of publications. We propose to develop a Web-based tool for Autism Research and the Environment (aWARE) to comprehensively aggregate and assess these highly variable and often conflicting data. The interactive aWARE tool will use an approach for the development of systematic evidence maps (SEMs) to identify and display all available relevant published evidence, enabling users to explore multiple research questions within the scope of the SEM. Throughout tool development, listening sessions and workshops will be used to seek perspectives from the broader autism community. New evidence will be indexed in the tool annually, which will serve as a living resource to investigate the association between environmental factors and ASD. MDPI 2023-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10532575/ /pubmed/37754843 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jox13030031 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Singh, Anisha
Lawler, Cindy P.
Walker, Vickie R.
Pelch, Katherine E.
Garton, Amanda E.
Rooney, Andrew A.
Haugen, Astrid C.
Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title_full Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title_fullStr Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title_full_unstemmed Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title_short Becoming aWARE: The Development of a Web-Based Tool for Autism Research and the Environment
title_sort becoming aware: the development of a web-based tool for autism research and the environment
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10532575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37754843
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jox13030031
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