Vitamin D profile in autism spectrum disorder children and its relation to the disease severity

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate whether vitamin D deficiency is a common finding in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children and whether such deficiency is related to ASD severity and language age or not. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on ASD children aged 2-6 years. The participants were 80 Egyptian children with ASD. All participants were assessed using DSM-V, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), language assessment, and assessment of serum vitamin D using ADVIA Centaur Vit D assay. About 63.8% of ASD children have vitamin D insufficiency, 28.8 % have vitamin D deficiency, and 7.4% have normal serum levels. No correlation was found between serum vitamin D and language age (r = -0.085, P = 0.451), DSM 5 severity levels (r = 0.015, P= 0.894), and CARS scores (r= 0.075, P= 0.511). ASD children have lower serum vitamin D levels, which may be one of the environmental factors contributing to ASD development in genetically susceptible individuals, and its correction may be helpful as adjuvant therapy for ASD.