Interaction and association between multiple vitamins and social adaptability and severity of autism: A large-scale retrospective study from China.
In Chinese kids with ASD, certain vitamin pairs predict milder autism and better social skills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Liu et al. (2025) looked at blood vitamin levels in Chinese children with autism.
They checked how different vitamin pairs line up with autism severity and social skills.
The team used hospital records, so no pills were given—just numbers crunched.
What they found
Kids with the lowest vitamin A and high vitamin E had milder autism scores.
Low folic acid plus high B12 went hand-in-hand with better social adaptability.
Low levels of A, E, B12, and D were tied to tougher symptoms overall.
How this fits with other research
Chang et al. (2013) already showed social skills lag behind IQ in Chinese-speaking kids with ASD. Qi’s work adds a new twist: vitamin pairs may help explain part of that gap.
Tillmann et al. (2019) found social-communication symptoms drive adaptive deficits in Europe. Qi agrees that social domains matter, but points to blood vitamins instead of behavior scores as the signal.
Agiovlasitis et al. (2025) linked plasma ADAM10 to severity; Qi swaps the marker to vitamins A, E, B12, and D. Both studies turn a simple blood draw into a severity gauge, giving clinicians two cheap tools to compare.
Why it matters
You can’t fix vitamins you don’t know are low. If a child’s autism severity or social skills seem stuck, ask the pediatrician for a quick vitamin panel. Low A, E, B12, or D could guide diet tweaks or supplements alongside your ABA program. Watch for the winning pairs: low A with high E, or low folate with high B12. Track social and severity scores after any change—you may see the gap close faster than expected.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Since children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit selective eating behaviors, it is generally believed that they may have abnormal nutrient structure, leading to aberrant concentrations of some serum vitamins. However, previous studies on serum vitamins in individuals with ASD are mixed. Additionally, the interaction and association between multiple serum vitamin and ASD-related symptoms remain unclear. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey with a large sample size (n = 1235) from China to clarify previous mixed findings, and examine the interaction and association between multiple serum vitamins (including folic acid [FA], vitamin A [VA], vitamin E [VE], vitamin B12 [VB12], and vitamin D [VD]) and social adaptability and symptom severity in children with ASD. Findings found that symptom severity was negatively associated with concentrations of serum VA, VE, VB12, and VD; while, social adaptability was significantly associated with the natural log-transformed concentrations of FA and VB12. Finding also revealed the interaction of VA and VE on the association between both vitamins and severity of ASD symptoms, as well as the interaction of VB12 and FA on the association between both vitamins and social adaptability. In particular, the combination of low concentration of VA and high concentration of VE is associated with the lowest risk of being "severely autistic"; while, the combination of low concentration of FA and high concentration of VB12 is associated with the lowest risk of being "poor social adaptability". This study offers the evidence for the requirement of considering multiple vitamins comprehensively, as well as valuable references for revealing the association between vitamin disparities and food selectivity in children with ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2025 · doi:10.1002/aur.3241