Prenatal Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matter and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children, a Case Control Study in France.

This was an observational study — researchers watched what happened rather than assigning treatments. It can show that two things happen together, but it cannot show that one caused the other.

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The abstract does not include a conclusions section, so this page does not state what the researchers concluded.

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• the ages of the people who took part
• how long the study ran

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Journal: Journal of autism and developmental disorders

Year: 2026

Design: Observational Study

Intervention: Air pollution

Authors: Marion Mortamais, Jeanne Sandrine Ongono, Cécile Michelon, Ian Hough, Emie Seyve, Itai Kloog, Cécile Zaros, Marie-Aline Charles, Johanna Lepeule, Amaria Baghdadli

A series of epidemiological studies conducted in the United States have consistently shown an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children associated with pre- and postnatal exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM). In Europe, studies are scarce and results are inconsistent. We aimed to investigate the association between prenatal exposure to PM and the risk of ASD in France. ASD cases were participants from the ELENA cohort. Controls children from the ELFE cohort were matched by sex, year (± 2) and region of birth. Prenatal exposures to PM10 and to PM2.5 were estimated between 2008 and 2013 using innovative hybrid spatio-temporal models developed for France. Conditional logistic regression models adjusted for birth season, parent's age at the child birth and parental education level were run. We included 125 ASD cases and 500 controls. Prenatal PM2.5 and PM10 median (IQR) concentration estimates were respectively 16.3 (3.9) µg/m3 and 22.9 (6.6) µg/m3 in the whole sample. The conditional logistic regression models showed Odds Ratios (ORs) (Confidence Interval 95%) for ASD risk of 0.72 (0.52-1.01) and 0.84 (0.58-1.22) for an IQR increase in PM2.5 and PM10 prenatal levels, respectively. When restricting population of ASD cases to children born the same year of controls, ORs were 1.79 (0.80-4.01) and 2.23 (0.71-9.04), respectively. Our results did not show that prenatal exposures to PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with the risk of ASD in children in France.Trial Registration Number NCT02625116.

Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026

PMID 40120015

DOI 10.1007/s10803-025-06795-y

This record was extracted from the paper's PubMed abstract and metadata. Full-text methods and risk-of-bias details were not reviewed.