Nutritional status of children with autism spectrum disorders in Zhengzhou / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the nutritional status of children with autism spectrum disorders, and to provide a reference for improving their nutritional status.@*Methods@#120 children with autism spectrum disorder who were treated in the rehabilitation center of Affiliated Children s Hospital of Zhengzhou University from September 2016 to September 2018 were selected as case group,and 120 normal children in the physical examination center of the same hospital were selected as the healthy group.The children s status was assessed by using the Clancy Autism Behavior Scale(CABS), and the serum nutrients levels were compared between these two groups.@*Results@#Compared with the healthy group,the Vitamin A[(83.44±9.20,59.45±4.42)mg/L],Vitamin B6[(64.15±11.22,32.02±5.75)mg/L],Vitamin C[(60.62±10.26,47.63±13.12)mg/L],protein[(120.45±30.51,104.46±9.38)g/L], iron[(134.25±18.16,112.17±6.02)mg/L], calcium[(72.96±10.62,66.57±4.11)mg/L], zinc[(70.85±5.76,62.52±10.66)mg/L] and folic acid[(31.38±6.77,20.29±6.26)mg/L], eicosapentaenoic acid(EPA)[(0.72±0.22,0.55±0.14)μmol/L], decosahexaenoic acid(DHA)[(1.54±0.35,1.22±0.26)μmol/L] and arachidonic acid(AA)[(5.51±0.76,5.03±0.16)μmol/L] were lower(t=25.75，27.92，8.54，5.49，12.64，6.30，7.53，13.18，7.14，8.04，6.77，P<0.05), the low body weight(49.17%,63.33%) and wasting(38.33%,46.67%) in autism spectrum disorder group were higher significantly(χ2=4.89，6.71，P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#The nutritional status of children with autism spectrum disorder is different from that of normal children. The lack of serum nutrients will lead to a high incidence of malnutrition.