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Urbanicity and Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

The etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is for the majority of cases unknown and more studies of risk factors are needed. Geographic variation in ASD occurrence has been observed, and urban residence has been suggested to serve as a proxy for etiologic and identification factors in ASD. We examined the association between urbanicity level and ASD at birth and during childhood. The study used a Danish register-based cohort of more than 800,000 children of which nearly 4,000 children were diagnosed with ASD. We found a dose–response association with greater level of urbanicity and risk of ASD. This association was found for residence at birth as well as residence during childhood. Further, we found an increased risk of ASD in children who moved to a higher level of urbanicity after birth. Also, earlier age of ASD diagnosis in urban areas was observed. While we could not directly examine the specific reasons behind these associations, our results demonstrating particularly strong associations between ASD diagnosis and post-birth migration suggest the influence of identification-related factors such as access to services might have a substantive role on the ASD differentials we observed.

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Acknowledgments

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Mølleparkvej 10, 9000, Aalborg, Denmark

    Marlene B. Lauritsen

  2. Regional Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

    Marlene B. Lauritsen

  3. Section for Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Aske Astrup & Erik T. Parner

  4. Faculty of Social Sciences, The National Centre for Register-Based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Carsten Bøcker Pedersen

  5. Department of General Practice, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Carsten Obel

  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Diana E. Schendel, Laura Schieve & Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp

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  1. Marlene B. Lauritsen
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  2. Aske Astrup
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Correspondence to Marlene B. Lauritsen.

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Lauritsen, M.B., Astrup, A., Pedersen, C.B. et al. Urbanicity and Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 394–404 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1875-y

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