Abstract
This study aims to establish whether children of an immigrant maternal population presented with a higher rate of autism than the indigenous population and to explore their presentation with regard to severity of symptoms, demographics and ethnicity. It is a retrospective case note analysis of 366 children who presented to the paediatric developmental service in the Adelaide and Meath incorporating the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght, Ireland between 2007 and 2009. During the study period, 366 children presented. Fifty-eight children (16 %) had mothers who were born in Africa and 53 (14 %) were born to mothers originating from a wider variety of countries. Two hundred and forty-eight children (68 %) had mothers born in Ireland. Maternal origin was not identified for seven children (2 %). An autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) was diagnosed in 131 children and speech and language delay in 132. Of the children with an ASD diagnosis, a higher proportion of the African cohort 13/18 (72.2 %) presented with moderate/severe cognitive disability compared to the Irish group 9/55(16.3 %), and the children in the African cohort showed a higher heritability with 36.9 % having a positive family history of autism reported compared to 26.3 % of the Irish cohort with an ASD diagnosis. Conclusion: This study highlights an observation of increased rates of ASD among a migrant population derived particularly from children born to mothers originating in Sub-Saharan Africa. This cohort is more severely affected. Further validation in an epidemiological sample is warranted, which if replicated, may help to identify possible aetiological risk factors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Association American Psychiatric (2000) The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSMIV-TR)
Bailey A, Le Couteur A, Gottesman I, Bolton P, Simonoff E, Yuzda E, Rutter M (1995) Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study. Psychol Med 25:63–77
Bakare MO, Ebigbo PO, Agomoh AO, Eaton J, Onyeama GM, Okonkwo KO, Onwukwe JU, Igwe MN, Orovwigho AO, Aguocha CM (2009) Knowledge about childhood autism and opinion among healthcare workers on availability of facilities and law caring for the needs and rights of children with childhood autism and other developmental disorders in Nigeria. BMC Pediatr 9:12
Bakare MO, Ebigbo PO, Agomoh AO, Menkiti NC (2008) Knowledge about childhood autism among health workers (KCAHW) questionnaire: description, reliability and internal consistency. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health 4:17
Bakare MO, Ebigbo PO, Ubochi VN (2012) Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among Nigerian children with intellectual disability: a stopgap assessment. J Health Care Poor Underserved 23:513–518
Barnevik-Olsson M, Gillberg C, Fernell E (2008) Prevalence of autism in children born to Somali parents living in Sweden: a brief report. Dev Med Child Neurol 50:598–601
Barnevik-Olsson M, Gillberg C, Fernell E (2010) Prevalence of autism in children of Somali origin living in Stockholm: brief report of an at-risk population. Dev Med Child Neurol 52:1167–1168
Bonham S (2012) Report on Perinatal Statistics for 2004. ESRI & Department of Health and Children
Clements KM, Barfield WD, Kotelchuck M, Wilber N (2008) Maternal socio-economic and race/ethnic characteristics associated with early intervention participation. Matern Child Health J 12:708–717
Croen LA, Grether JK, Selvin S (2002) Descriptive epidemiology of autism in a California population: who is at risk? J Autism Dev Disord 32(3):217–224
CSO–Central Statistics Office I (2012) Census 2011. Available online at http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=CD610&PLanguage=0. Accessed 11 Mar 2013
Dealberto MJ (2011) Prevalence of autism according to maternal immigrant status and ethnic origin. Acta Psychiatr Scand 123:339–348
Elsabbagh M, Divan G, Koh YJ, Kim YS, Kauchali S, Marcin C, Montiel-Nava C, Patel V, Paula CS, Wang C, Yasamy MT, Fombonne E (2012) Global prevalence of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Autism Res 5:160–179
ESRI. (2012) Perinatal Statistics Report 2007. Ireland, pp 31–32. Available on line at http://www.esri.ie/publications/latest_publications/view/index.xml?id=2859. Accessed 11 Mar 2013
Fombonne E (2009) Epidemiology of pervasive developmental disorders. Pediatr Res 65:591–598
Gardener H, Spiegelman D, Buka SL (2009) Prenatal risk factors for autism: comprehensive meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry 195(1):7–14
Gillberg C, Schaumann H, Gillberg IC (1995) Autism in immigrants: children born in Sweden to mothers born in Uganda. J Intellect Disabil Res: JIDR 39(Pt 2):141–144
Gillberg C, Steffenburg S, Borjesson B, Andersson L (1987) Infantile autism in children of immigrant parents. A population-based study from Goteborg, Sweden. Br. J Psychiatry 150:856–858
Goodman R, Richards H (1995) Child and adolescent psychiatric presentations of second-generation Afro–Caribbeans in Britain. Br J Psychiatry 167:362–369
Gorman E (2008). A mysterious connection: autism and Minneapolis’ Somali children. MinnPost. Available via http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2008/07/mysterious-connection-autism-and-minneapolis-somali-children. Accessed 01/08/13
Haglund NG, Kallen KB (2011) Risk factors for autism and Asperger syndrome. Perinatal factors and migration. Autism 15:163–183
Hultman CM, Sparen P, Cnattingius S (2002) Perinatal risk factors for infantile autism. Epidemiol 13:417–423
Igwe MN, Ahanotu AC, Bakare MO, Achor JU, Igwe C (2011) Assessment of knowledge about childhood autism among paediatric and psychiatric nurses in Ebonyi state Nigeria. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 5:1
Keen DV, Reid FD, Arnone D (2010) Autism, ethnicity and maternal immigration. Br J Psychiatry 196:274–281
Kirby D. (2008) Is Autism an "American Disease?" Somali Immigrants Reportedly Have High Rates. Huffington Post. Available via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/is-autism-an-american-dis_b_114776.html. Accessed 01/08/13
Kocovska E, Fernell E, Billstedt E, Minnis H, Gillberg C (2012) Vitamin D and autism: clinical review. Res Dev Disabil 33:1541–1550
Kumar RA, Christian SL (2009) Genetics of autism spectrum disorders. Curr Neurol Neurosci Report 9:188–197
Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Mortensen PB (2005) Effects of familial risk factors and place of birth on the risk of autism: a nationwide register-based study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry Allied Discip 46:963–971
Magnusson, Rai D, Goodman A, Lundberg M, Idring S, Svensson A, Koupil I, Serlachius E, Dalman C (2012) Migration and autism spectrum disorder: population-based study. Br J Psychiatry 201:109–15, 2012 Aug
O’Roak BJ, Deriziotis P, Lee C, Vives L, Schwartz JJ, Girirajan S, Karakoc E, Mackenzie AP, Ng SB, Baker C, Rieder MJ, Nickerson DA, Bernier R, Fisher SE, Shendure J, Eichler EE (2011) Exome sequencing in sporadic autism spectrum disorders identifies severe de novo mutations. Nat Genet 43:585–589
Pinto R, Ashworth M, Jones R (2008) Schizophrenia in black Caribbeans living in the UK: an exploration of underlying causes of the high incidence rate. Br J Gen Pract 58:429–434
Ritvo ER, Freeman BJ, Pingree C, Mason-Brothers A, Jorde L, Jenson WR, McMahon WM, Petersen PB, Mo A, Ritvo A (1989) The UCLA-University of Utah epidemiologic survey of autism: prevalence. Am J Psychiatr 146:194–199
Sebat J, Lakshmi B, Malhotra D, Troge J, Lese-Martin C, Walsh T, Yamrom B et al (2007) Strong association of de novo copy number mutations with autism. Science 316:445–449
Williams GMaM, Quail. (2010) The infants and their families. Report 1. Growing Up in Ireland.The National Longitudinal Study of Children. Available on line at www.growingup.ie/index.php?id=61. Accessed 11 Mar 2013
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the support given by the National Children's Hospital Foundation to this work. We would like to acknowledge the support given by Barbara Fox in the data collection stage of the project.
Conflict of interest
This work was supported by a grant from the National Children’s Hospital Foundation. There is no conflict of interest due to this.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bolton, S., McDonald, D., Curtis, E. et al. Autism in a recently arrived immigrant population. Eur J Pediatr 173, 337–343 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-013-2149-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-013-2149-6