CHICAGO (AP) – obesity may be a factor that increases the risk for a pregnant woman to have a child with autism, reports a study dfifundido on Monday in the digital publication Pediatrics.

Document is among the first linking both aspects and although it is not proven that obesity causes autism, the authors claim that the results raise public health concerns due to the high number of women increases weight in United States.

Obese pregnant women are 67% more likely than normal weight to have autistic children, according to the study. Pregnant women with excess weight also faced double the risk of having children with other developmental delays.

The study was conducted among some 1,000 children of California, whose ages were between two and five years. Almost 700 children had autism or other underdeveloped, and 315 did not have these problems.

On average, women have one between 88 chances of having a child with autism. By their results, the study suggests that obesity during pregnancy increases that risk, one among 53 possibilities, noted the authors.

Since more than one third of the women in United States of childbearing age are obese, the results of the study are potentially worrying and represent an incentive to keep them a normal weight, said researcher Paula Krakowiak, co-author of the paper and the University of California, Davis researcher.

Various previous studies have linked obesity during pregnancy with stillbirths, premature births and some birth defects.

El doctor Daniel Coury, Chief of Pediatrics of development and conduct at the national children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said that the results of the study “cause considerable concern”.

Coury noted that rates of autism in the United States have at the same high rates of obesity and pointed out that research suggests that there is perhaps more than a coincidence.

Is necessary to deepen the research to confirm the results. But if maternal obesity is indeed related to autism, it would be only one of many factors that contribute to the problem, said Coury, who did not participate in the study.

Genetics is the aspect that has been associated with autism, and the scientists examined whether maternal diseases and the use of certain drugs during pregnancy could also be a factor.

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In internet:

Pediatrics (Pediatrics): http://www.pediatrics.org

Autism: http://1.usa.gov/bj7JJ