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Extremely preterm birth and autistic traits in young adulthood : the EPICure study
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O’Reilly, Helen, Ni, Yanyan, Johnson, Samantha, Wolke, Dieter and Marlow, Neil (2021) Extremely preterm birth and autistic traits in young adulthood : the EPICure study. Molecular Autism, 12 (1). 30. doi:10.1186/s13229-021-00414-0 ISSN 2040-2392.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-021-00414-0
Abstract
Background:
A high prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is reported in children born extremely preterm (EP), but an even larger proportion of survivors are affected by subclinical difficulties than meet diagnostic criteria. The aims of this study were to investigate autistic traits associated with the broader autism phenotype in a cohort of young adults born EP, and explore how these traits relate to emotion recognition, empathy and autism symptom presentation in childhood. The prevalence of autism diagnoses was also investigated.
Methods:
One hundred and twenty-nine young adults born before 26 weeks of gestation and 65 term-born controls participated in the 19-year follow-up phase of the EPICure studies. In addition to a clinical interview, participants completed the Broader Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ), the Empathy Quotient questionnaire, and the Frankfurt Test and Training of Facial Affect Recognition. The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) was completed by the participants’ parents at age 11 years.
Results:
EP born young adults scored significantly higher on the BAPQ in comparison with their term-born peers, indicating greater autistic traits. Among EP participants, BAPQ scores were correlated with SCQ scores in childhood (r = 0.484, p < 0.001). EP young adults had significantly lower scores in emotion recognition and empathy in comparison with controls; however, this effect was mediated by IQ. At 19 years, a diagnosis of autism was reported by 10% of EP participants versus 1.6% of controls, whereas 31% of EP participants scored above the cut-off for the broader autism phenotype in comparison with 8.5% of term-born controls.
Limitations:
The high attrition of EP participants from lower socio-economic backgrounds and with lower cognitive functioning may have led to an underrepresentation of those presenting with difficulties associated with autism.
Conclusions:
A larger proportion of EP survivors are affected by difficulties associated with autism than have confirmed diagnoses, with a moderate correlation between autism symptom scores in childhood and autistic traits in young adulthood. EP young adults had significantly higher autism symptom scores and a larger proportion had a diagnosis of autism than controls. Screening for autistic traits at set points throughout childhood will help identify those EP individuals at risk of social difficulties who may benefit from intervention.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | R Medicine > RC Internal medicine R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Mental Health and Wellbeing Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Premature labor , Premature infants , Premature infants -- Development, Premature infants -- Intelligence levels, Premature infants , Autistic youth, Youth with autism spectrum disorders | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Molecular Autism | ||||||
Publisher: | BioMed Central Ltd. | ||||||
ISSN: | 2040-2392 | ||||||
Official Date: | 6 May 2021 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 12 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Article Number: | 30 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1186/s13229-021-00414-0 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 17 May 2021 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 18 May 2021 | ||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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