CHICAGO — A small study of toddlers finds that about one-quarter of babies born very prematurely had signs of autism on an early screening test.
The research is preliminary because formal autism testing wasn’t done. But the results are provocative, suggesting that tiny preemies may face greater risks of developing autism than previously thought.
That suggests autism may be an underappreciated consequence of medical advances enabling the tiniest of premature babies to survive, said lead author Catherine Limperopoulos, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal and Children’s Hospital in Boston.
She emphasized that the results don’t mean extreme prematurity causes autism, but rather that it might be among contributing factors.
The study was released today and published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.
