Pregnancy outcomes in women with intellectual disabilities examined in population study, ET HealthWorld
New Delhi: Pregnant women with intellectual disabilities, including autism, have fewer live births and develop fewer complications such as gestational diabetes and high blood pressure than women without intellectual disabilities, a study of the US population found. More of these women developed mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, than women without intellectual disabilities, the study found.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repetitive behavior and impaired social skills.
Researchers, including those from the AJ Drexel Autism Institute in the USA, have found that women with intellectual disabilities are, on average, younger at birth than women without this disability. Their results were published in the Network Open of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The authors said that while previous studies have reported an increased risk of pregnancy and birth-related problems in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there has been little research based on population-based data from the United States.
For the study, researchers analyzed health insurance claims from the U.S. national Medicaid program from 2008 to 2019. They compared post-pregnancy outcomes in groups of women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (over 55,000 women), including autism, and a random sample of women without these conditions (over 430,000 women).
“Among all types of births recorded, the prevalence of live births was significantly lower among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (66.6 percent) than among people without autism or intellectual disability (76.7 percent),” the authors write.
Accordingly, the number of miscarriages, stillbirths and abortions was higher among women with mental disorders than among women without these illnesses, it was said.
The researchers said reproductive health education, perinatal care and maternity services need to be designed to ensure comprehensive and targeted support for pregnant women with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
To reduce inequalities in maternal health care, policies must be designed and implemented that are sensitive to and tailored to the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, they added.
