Children born during the first year of the pandemic, including those exposed to COVID in utero, were no more likely to screen positive for autism than unexposed or pre-pandemic children, found researchers from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The study, published in JAMA Network Open , is the first report on autism risk among pandemic -era children. "Autism risk is known to increase with virtually any kind of insult to mom during pregnancy, including infection and stress," says Dani Dumitriu, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and senior author of the study.
"The scale of the COVID pandemic had pediatricians, researchers, and developmental scientists worried that we would see an uptick in autism rates. But reassuringly, we didn't find any indication of such an increase in our study." It's important to note, Dumitriu adds, that the study did not look at autism diagnosis , only the risk of developing autism as measured by a screening questionnaire filled in by the child's parents.
"It's too early to have definitive diagnostic numbers," she says. "But this screener is predictive, and it's not showing that prenatal exposure to COVID or the pandemic increases the likelihood of autism." "There has been broad speculation about how the COVID generation is developing, and this study gives us the first glimmer of an answer with respect to autism risk.
" Investigating autism risk and COVID Dumitriu's team has been studying the potential effect.
