ArticleMolecular autism2022
Maternal vitamin D during pregnancy and offspring autism and autism-associated traits: a prospective cohort study.
Article in Molecular autism, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy and risk of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis and symptoms in offspring: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Methodological approaches, challenges, and opportunities in the application of Mendelian randomisation to lifecourse epidemiology: A systematic literature review.European journal of epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- Vitamin D supplementation in the first 2 years and autism spectrum traits at 6-8 years - a randomized clinical trial.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Trial
- The reporting and handling of missing data in genetic epidemiological studies of mental health in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Childhood trauma as a mediator between autistic traits and depression: Evidence from the ALSPAC birth cohort.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Vitamin D and Vitamin BDiseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Vitamin D-Gut-Brain Axis in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Bidirectional Crosstalk.International journal of general medicine · 2026Review
- Elucidating Biological Links in Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Blood-Based Risk Factor Identification to a Validated Nomogram for Early Risk Stratification.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Article
- Exploring the Missing link between vitamin D and autism spectrum disorder: Scientific evidence and new perspectives.Heliyon · 2024Article
- The Autism Spectrum Disorder and Its Possible Origins in Pregnancy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Pre-autism: What a paediatrician should know about early diagnosis of autism.World journal of clinical pediatrics · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere has been a growing interest in the association between maternal levels of vitamin D during pregnancy and offspring autism. However, whether any associations reflect causal effects is still inconclusive.
methodsWe used data from a UK-based pregnancy cohort study (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) comprising 7689 births between 1991 and 1992 with maternal blood vitamin D levels recorded during pregnancy and at least one recorded outcome measure, including autism diagnosis and autism-associated traits. The association between each outcome with seasonal and gestational age-adjusted maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D during pregnancy was estimated using confounder-adjusted regression models. Multiple imputation was used to account for missing data, and restricted cubic splines were used to investigate nonlinear associations. Mendelian randomization was used to strengthen causal inference.
resultsNo strong evidence of an association between maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D during pregnancy and any offspring autism-associated outcome was found using multivariable regression analysis (autism diagnosis: adjusted OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.90-1.06), including with multiple imputation (autism diagnosis: adjusted OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.93-1.06), and no evidence of a causal effect was suggested by Mendelian randomization (autism diagnosis: causal OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.46-2.55). Some evidence of increased odds of autism-associated traits at lower levels of maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was found using spline analysis. LIMITATIONS: Our study was potentially limited by low power, particularly for diagnosed autism cases as an outcome. The cohort may not have captured the extreme lows of the distribution of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and our analyses may have been biased by residual confounding and missing data.
conclusionsThe present study found no strong evidence of a causal link between maternal vitamin D levels in pregnancy and offspring diagnosis or traits of autism.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.