Paternal Obesity Linked with Higher Autism Risk in Children

Sharon Moore April 14, 2014

A new study shows a link between father’s obesity and the risk of autism in children. It found that children with obese fathers may be 53 per cent more likely to develop autism than those whose dads have normal weight.

“Previous research has linked a mother’s obesity to her child’s risk for autism, but these studies didn’t take into account the father’s weight. This may have overestimated the mother’s role in the risk of autism,” the researchers wrote. In fact, the autism risk linked to an obese mother from 17 per cent dropped to nine per cent after factoring in the father’s weight.

For the study, the researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 93,000 children, including 419 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The data was pulled from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, in which researchers recruited pregnant women between 1999 and 2008 and followed their families through early childhood. They also calculated the parents’ body mass index (BMI) through questionnaires given to the children’s mothers at 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Findings showed that about 10 percent of mothers and fathers were obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher. A healthy BMI is between 18 and 25.

The study also examined risk for milder subtypes of autism, including pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome.

Obese men have a 73 per cent increased risk and obese women have a 34 per cent increased risk of having a child with classic autism compared with healthy-weight parents. For Asperger syndrome, obese men are at double the risk and obese women are at a 40 percent increased risk.

The researchers also took into consideration other factors like the parents’ medical issues and lifestyle that could have affected their children’s autism risk. According to the data, obese mothers and fathers are less educated and smoke more than do parents with a healthy BMI. They found that obese mothers were also less likely to have taken folic acid supplements before becoming pregnant compared to women of a healthy weight. Research has previously found that women who take folic acid around the time of conception are less likely to have a child with autism.

“It is still unknown why a father’s weight might increase his child’s risk for autism. Genetics may play a role,” said the researchers. “For example, deletions on chromosome 16p11.2 are implicated in both autism and morbid obesity, and fathers may pass these on to their children.”

The study was published in the journal Paediatrics.

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Paternal Obesity Raises Child’s Risk for Autism