Secular Trend of Sex Ratio and Symptom Patterns among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

An information technology invention embodied in a website serving the interests of the autism community was designed to “let the data talk.” By its use, the authors have detected a downward temporal trend in 2013 in the sex ratio of 2431 members of Autism360.org from a yearly average between 2010 and 2012 of 4.24 to 3.01 in 2013. As of the first two months of 2014, the average sex ratio is 2.69. We report contemporaneous changes in previously reported male vs female symptom patterns. Such changes suggest a convergence in which distinctive severity of certain grouped central nervous, emotional, and immune profile items in females have diminished toward that of males. The data also show correlations among these profile items that add further credence to the sex ratio findings. A wider dispersion of the female data as compared with the male data was found in the year preceding the downward trend in the mean sex ratio. The authors suggest that such a trend toward an increase in the variance of the data points to instability in the biological system—the autism spectrum. We conclude that public policy would be better served by monitoring changes in the standard deviation as compared with the mean in large data sets to better anticipate changes. The findings we report raise questions based on known sex differences in detoxification chemistry. One such question would be whether maternal, fetal, or individual exposure to a novel environmental factor may have breached the taller fence of female protection from toxins.

Screen time exposure and sleep among children with developmental disabilities

“…Our study sample with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1 is to be expected given the higher prevalence of developmental disabilities in boys, including diagnoses such as ASD and ADHD. 29,30 Our finding of a negative relationship between screen time and sleep duration is consistent with previously published studies. [31][32][33] Given the well-recognised importance of sleep and the increasing duration of daily screen time exposure, it would be imperative to discuss sleep and screen time exposure at routine visits to the developmental or general paediatrician's clinic.…”

“…Excessive screen time exposure will, thus, likely further adversely affect academic outcomes. Our study sample with a male‐to‐female ratio of 3:1 is to be expected given the higher prevalence of developmental disabilities in boys, including diagnoses such as ASD and ADHD . Our finding of a negative relationship between screen time and sleep duration is consistent with previously published studies .…”

Developmental vitamin D deficiency and autism: Putative pathogenic mechanisms

“…De novo mutations in the male germ cell line due to advanced age is a possible explanation of high occurrence of ASD in such children [37][38][39]. ASD is four to five times higher in males than in females [40]. The reasons behind gender biased ASD prevalence are still not clear.…”