Research shows increased hospital admissions for autistic children, related even to short-term exposure, with boys at greater risk than girls.
Autistic children face a higher risk of hospitalization if they are exposed to air pollution for relatively short periods, with boys at greater risk than girls, new research suggests.
Admissions for conditions such as hyperactivity, aggression or self-harm can be avoided by minimizing your exposure, and reducing air pollution levels can reduce risk, the researchers behind the study concluded. The results were published in the journal BMJ Open .
“Short-term exposure [a la contaminación del aire] was associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions for autism spectrum disorder,” the researchers wrote. “The associations were more prominent among boys than girls in sex-stratified analyses.”
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a variety of symptoms and severity. It is often accompanied by neuroinflammation and systemic inflammation, meaning medications, supplements, and diet can improve key symptoms, according to the BMJ Open report.
Short-term exposure to air pollution, over several days or weeks, for example, is thought to induce systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation, which could increase the risk of hospital admission in autistic people.
But previous studies have focused on the association between long-term exposure to air pollution for years during pregnancy and the early postnatal period and the development of ASD among children.
The researchers sought to find out whether short-term exposure may also pose a risk of worsening ASD symptoms among school-age children. A child’s developing nervous system is more susceptible to environmental exposures than an adult’s, according to the report.
Globally, 1% of children are autistic, according to WHO
Researchers at the Institute of Public Health and Health at Seoul National University Hospital relied on official government data on daily hospital admissions for autism among children aged five to 14 between 2011 and 2015.
They also collected data on national daily levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) in each of the 16 regions of the Republic of Korea.
Data analysis revealed that short-term exposure to PM2.5, NO2, and O3 was associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for autism and that boys were at greater risk than girls.
The researchers acknowledged the study’s limitations and called for more research in the area.
“This study suggests that short-term exposure to air pollution affects the worsening of ASD symptoms, which is more prominent among boys than girls,” the researchers concluded. “Air pollution mixtures have also been associated with worsening ASD symptoms, primarily driven by PM2.5 and NO2.
“These results emphasize that reducing exposure to air pollution must be considered for successful management of ASD symptoms, which is important with regard to quality of life and economic costs.
“As this is the first study on this topic, further studies, especially studies directly investigating ASD symptoms in more detail, are needed to confirm the results and extract policy implications.”
By Andrew Gregory. Article in English