Role of environmental factors in autism spectrum disorders in Saudi children aged 3-10 years in the Northern and Eastern regions of Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To study the environmental factors which can contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorders in Saudi children aged 3-10 years in Northern region (Arar) and Eastern region (Dammam) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A case control study was conducted and the data was collected from September 2017 to December 2017 by interviewing the parents of 100 Saudi autistic children and 100 normal children aged 3-10 years from Arar and Dammam. A specially designed questionnaire was used to collect the data which includes socio-demographic characteristics of the parents and ante-natal history of the mother and developmental history, social history and dietary habits of the child. To find out the association between environmental factors and development of autism in children, logistic regression with odds ratio used. RESULTS: There was a significant association between consanguineous marriages and autism. A significant association was also found between medications taken by the mother during pregnancy and autism. Significantly lowered ORs for Autism were observed for children in families of perceived adequate income and children consuming a Vitamin-D rich diet. Increased maternal age was observed in autistic children when compared to normal children. CONCLUSION: The environmental factors which could contribute to the development of autism are consanguineous marriage, inadequate family income, medications taken by the mother during pregnancy, vitamin D deficient diet of the child and maternal age during pregnancy.