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Advanced Maternal Age and Maternal Education Disparity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Objective Previous studies have shown inconsistent results with regard to the association between advanced parental age and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The sociodemographic status of parents has been found to be associated with children with ASD, however. Therefore, a pathway analysis was undertaken of the roles of maternal age and education in ASD diagnosis and community screening, in a national birth cohort database, using a propensity score matching (PSM) method. Method The 6- and 66-month Taiwan Birth Cohort Study dataset was used (N = 20,095). The PSM exact matching method was used to select 1700 families (ratio of 1:4 between ASD diagnosis and control) from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study dataset. Results (1) The results from the complete dataset and the PSM exact matching dataset both show that the risk of a child being diagnosed with ASD was increased by the mother being over 40 years old. (2) Although more children of mothers with lower-than-average education were positive on screening, more children of mothers with higher-than-average education were also diagnosed with ASD. Conclusions for Practice Advanced maternal age had a higher association with the diagnosis of ASD, and maternal educational disparity was found between ASD clinical diagnosis and community screening. Community and primary medical care services should pay more attention to children of parents with lower education during ASD screening to prevent delayed diagnosis.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Bureau of Health Promotion [Grant Nos. DOH94-HP-1802, DOH95-HP-1802, DOH96-HP-1702, DOH99-HP-1702].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Calo Psychiatric Center, Pingtung County, Taiwan

    For-Wey Lung

  2. Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    For-Wey Lung

  3. College of Public Health, Institute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tung-Liang Chiang

  4. Genetic Counseling Center, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan

    Shio-Jean Lin

  5. Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Meng-Chih Lee

  6. Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan

    Meng-Chih Lee

  7. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Meng-Chih Lee

  8. College of Health, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan

    Meng-Chih Lee

  9. Department of Nursing and Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 Da-Hsueh Rd., Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Bih-Ching Shu

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  1. For-Wey Lung
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Correspondence to Bih-Ching Shu.

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Lung, FW., Chiang, TL., Lin, SJ. et al. Advanced Maternal Age and Maternal Education Disparity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Matern Child Health J 22, 941–949 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-2470-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-2470-9

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