Abstract
Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial, pervasive, neurodevelopmental disorder, of which intestinal symptoms collectively represent one of the most common comorbidities. Methods: In this study, 1,222 children with ASD and 1,206 typically developing (TD) children aged 2-7 years were enrolled from 13 cities in China. Physical measurement and basic information questionnaires were conducted in ASD and TD children. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) were used to evaluate the clinical symptoms of children with ASD. The six-item Gastrointestinal Severity Index (6-GSI) was used to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal symptoms in two groups. Results: The detection rates of constipation, stool odor, and total intestinal symptoms in ASD children were significantly higher than those in TD children (40.098% vs. 25.622%, 17.021% vs. 9.287%, and 53.601% vs. 41.294%, respectively). Autistic children presenting with intestinal comorbidity had significantly higher scores on the ABC, SRS, CARS, and multiple subscales than autistic children without intestinal symptoms, suggesting that intestinal comorbidity may exacerbates the core symptoms of ASD children. Conclusion: Intestinal dysfunction was significantly more common in autistic than in TD children. This dysfunction may aggravate the core symptoms of children with ASD.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the children and parents who participated in this study. We thank members of the following participating units for their help in data collection and collation: Jun-yan Feng, Qiu Li, Jiang Zhu, Wei Wei, Lin Tian, Jin-zhu Zhao, Ming-yang Zou, Zhao-chuan Yang, Liang Xu, Bo Xiao, Yun Zhang, Tao-tao Jiang, Yan-jun Zhao, and Xi-yue Xiong.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82304119, 82372559, and 81973054), the National Natural Science Foundation of ChongQing (No.CSTB2023NSCQ-BHX0155) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.2023M730448).
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TY: conducted data collection and analysis, drafted, and revised the manuscript. TYL and JC: conceived and designed the research, revised the article, and conducted general supervision. QZ, LC, YD, FYJ, YH, LJW, XYK, MJY, JZ, LL, QH, JJC, SFF, YCW, QW, and CHJ: performed data collection, and analysis and interpretation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
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Yang, T., Zhang, Q., Chen, L. et al. Intestinal Symptoms Among Children aged 2–7 Years with Autism Spectrum Disorder in 13 Cities of China. J Autism Dev Disord (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-023-06122-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-023-06122-3