Women who experience fevers during pregnancy are more likely to have a child with autism, according to a study published in Molecular Psychiatry.
For the study, researchers analyzed data for nearly 96,000 Norwegian children born between 1999 and 2009. Of these children, 583 had autism spectrum disorder. Sixteen percent of mothers, or 15,701 women, experienced one or more fevers during pregnancy.
Researchers found autism risk jumped 40 percent in pregnant women who had a fever in the second trimester. Women who experienced a fever in the third trimester had a 15 percent higher risk of having a child with autism. For women who experienced three of more fevers after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the risk increased by more than 300 percent.
Researchers also assessed the use of fever-reducing medications like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. No women who took ibuprofen gave birth to children with autism.
The study does not prove a causal relationship between fever during pregnancy and autism, researchers note.
"We don't want to be alarmist, but certainly we want to know the best way to manage fever should it occur," study author Mady Hornig, MD, director of translational research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity in New York City, told CBS News. She said further research is needed to "draw more solid conclusions and interpretations about what the relationship of fever is to autism."
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