Nutritional status and iq level of the autistic children in Bangladesh along with the perception of their parents about autism

Abstract

Disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and also by restricted as well as repetitive behavior is known as autism. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering the way nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize. However how does this occur is not well understood. A cross-sectional study was conducted by us between January’2014 to June’2016 and the study aimed to describe the nutritional status of autistic children in Bangladesh and it’s relation with IQ level as well as perception of their parents about autism. Nutritional status was assessed by means of nutritional data, anthropometric data and providing a questionnaire to parents. A total of three hundred & eighty four children (age group 1-12 years) with autism were enrolled in this study. The parents were asked to complete the questionnaire regarding the socio-demographic and eating behavior of their children. They were also asked to provide a 24-hour Re-call Method by average of three days food diary. IQ assessment was done with Bayley Scales of infant development (BSID), Independent Behavior Assessment Scale (IBAS), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Data analysis was done by SPSS version 20, ANOVA tests & T test. Children with autism exhibited several abnormalities in terms of eating behavior. Energy intake was lower than the RDA in all age group of the autistic children. Mean intake of protein & calcium were higher than the RDA in all age group of the autistic children but in fat intake it was lower in only 10-12y age group. In case of mean intake of iron it was higher than the RDA in all the age group except 7-9 years & 10-12years age group. VitA, thiamine, VitC intake were lower than the RDA. In case of riboflavin & niacin in two age group 1-3 years & 4-6years they were higher than the RDA but in age group 7-9y & 10-12y it was lower than the RDA. Deficient intake of protein, thiamine, niacin & zinc was highly significant with low IQ level of the autistic children (P value was .00). According to the anthropometric data, nutritional status of the ASD children was almost in normal range. But there was also malnutrition and a relation with malnutrition & IQ level existed. Those who had poor nutritional status, they had low IQ level. So far as parent’s perception is concerned the perceptional level of the parents in most of the cases didn’t associate with their educational level and most of them didn’t have much awareness about Autism.