The Effect of Sex Differences and Family History as a Genetic Factors related to Autism Spectrum Disorder among Group of children in Erbil city, Kurdistan Region- Iraq.

Abstract

The expanding incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the last years has led researchers to focus on the factors for identification and diagnosis that are linked with autism. ASDs are a group of early-onset and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders of the brain. The aim of the recent study was to assess the family history and sex differences as factors related to ASD among Kurdish children in Erbil city. Two hundred and nineteen subjects with ASD and one hundred nineteen healthy children were included in the study. Depending on the type of data and the objective of the assessment, “Chi-square tests, Likelihood Ratio, Linear-by-Linear Association, Pearson Correlation, and Fisher's Exact Test” were used to compare dissimilarities between autistic groups and healthy groups. In the study group consisting of children with ASD, in terms of sex differences, about 75.8% of the children in the Autism group were male compared to 57.1% in the control group and 24.2% of the offspring in the autistic group were female compared to 42.9% in the control group, which means the ratio is (3:1, male: female) and if someone to be autistic in the family in future will be mostly male and this is highly significant in our study, the p-value about (0.002). This study concludes that Sex Differences and Family History as genetic risk factors for developing autism among the Kurdish population.