Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Newborn Bloodspots: Associations With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Correlation With Maternal Serum Levels.
Newborn fat levels do not flag autism risk.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Piwowarczyk et al. (2020) checked newborn bloodspots for polyunsaturated fats. They wanted to see if low or high levels predict later autism.
The team studied California babies already in a state registry. They compared kids later diagnosed with ASD to matched peers.
What they found
Only one fat, linoleic acid, showed a weak link. Babies in the third-highest group had slightly higher odds of ASD.
No other fat quartile stood out. The pattern did not hold across the board, so the result is not a reliable signal.
How this fits with other research
Zhong et al. (2020) reviewed many prenatal nutrients. They found strong, repeated protection for folic acid and vitamin D, but not for fats.
Lee et al. (2022) tracked the same newborn window. They spotted clear ASD risk from jaundice, low sugar, and growth delay, not from fats.
Bouck et al. (2016) used the same California cohort. They saw modest risk tied to second-trimester hormone markers, again not fats.
Together these studies show that some early markers matter, but newborn PUFA levels do not.
Why it matters
You can stop chasing newborn fat levels as an autism screen. Focus instead on the perinatal red flags that replicate: jaundice, hypoglycemia, and intrauterine growth delay. When parents ask about early predictors, point them to robust signals, not single-fat quirks.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Check the birth chart for jaundice or growth delay, not PUFA reports.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
We conducted a population-based case-control study to examine newborn polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels in association with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and assess PUFA correlation across two time points. ASD cases (n = 200) were identified through the Department of Developmental Services and matched to live-birth population controls (n = 200) on birth month, year (2010-2011), and sex. Nonesterified PUFAs were measured by isotope dilution liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry from archived newborn dried blood spots and maternal mid-pregnancy serum samples. Crude and adjusted conditional logistic regression models were used to examine the association between neonatal PUFA levels, categorized in quartiles and according to distributional extremes, and ASD. Cubic splines were utilized to examine nonlinear relationships between continuous neonatal PUFAs and ASD. The correlation between neonatal and maternal levels was examined using Pearson correlation coefficients. In adjusted analyses of neonatal PUFA levels, no clear trends emerged, though there was an elevated odds ratio of ASD for the third quartile of linoleic acid, relative to the first (adjusted odds ratio = 2.49, 95% confidence interval: 1.31, 4.70). Cubic spline analysis suggested a nonlinear association between linoleic acid and ASD, though this was not robust to sensitivity analyses. While individual PUFAs were significantly correlated with one another within a given time point, aside from docohexaseanoic acid, PUFAs were not correlated across maternal and neonatal samples. Overall, our findings do not support an association between neonatal PUFA levels and ASD. Future work should confirm and expand these findings by examining associations with phenotypic subgroups and considering PUFAs in other time points. LAY SUMMARY: In this study, we examined whether levels of fats known as polyunsaturated fatty acids, measured in newborns, were related to later child diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Overall, we did not find strong evidence for hypothesized reduction in risk of ASD based on newborn levels of these fats. Future studies in larger samples and considering other time points may be useful to explain whether these fats are important in brain development related to ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1601-1613. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2365