Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchCan Parents’ Concerns Predict Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Prospective Study of High-Risk Siblings From 6 to 36 Months of Age
Section snippets
Study Participants
Parent concerns were analyzed in respect to infants at HR and LR who were participating in a longitudinal study of early behavioral markers of ASD at 1 of 4 sites in Canada (Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta; Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto, Ontario; Offord Centre for Child Studies in Hamilton, Ontario; IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia).20 All infants were enrolled between 6 and 12 months and underwent comprehensive assessment of their cognitive,
Participant Characteristics by Outcome Group
Participant characteristics are presented in Table 1. Three groups based on 3-year diagnostic outcomes were compared: 69 LR (31 boys); 106 HR-N (55 boys); and 62 HR-ASD (48 boys). There was a group difference for sex, with fewer girls in the HR-ASD group compared to HR-N and LR groups (F2,218 = 5.3, p = .006). There was a group difference for exact age at 6 months (F2,136 = 3.3, p =.04), with HR-N (mean ± SD = 6.27 ± 0.35 months) being younger than LR (mean ± SD = 6.46 ± 0.37 months), but
Discussion
This study provides the most detailed description of prospectively examined parental concerns to date, comparing rates of concerns in multiple domains in infants at LR and HR for ASD from 6 to 24 months. Overall, parents of children with ASD recognize very early developmental differences in their later-born infants who develop ASD that distinguish them from other infants. Notably, the relative rates of types of concerns reported over time were remarkably similar across risk and outcome groups,
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Clinical guidance is available at the end of this article.
This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions (AI-HS), Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, and Neuro-DevNet.
Dr. Vaillancourt served as the statistical expert for this research.
Disclosure: Dr. Zwaigenbaum was a site principal investigator on a biomarker study funded by SynapDx, receiving operating funds but no honoraria or other financial benefits from this role. Dr. Szatmari has received royalties from Guilford Press. Drs. Sacrey, Bryson, Brian, Smith, Roberts, Roncadin, Garon, Vaillancourt, and Armstrong, Mr. Novak, Ms. McCormick, Ms. MacKinnon, and Ms. Jilderda report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.