Winter design related to the risk of autism was raised (HealthDay)

children conceived in the winter seem to have a greater risk to be diagnosed with autism, a new study suggests.

Environmental factors, including exposure to viruses such as influenza and seasonal changes in diet, can play a role in the greatest risk of autism in children designed in the winter, according to the University of CaliforniaDavis researchers.

The researchers analyzed data from 6.6 million children who were born in California between January 1990 and December 2002, followed by up to what the children were 6 years old. The risk of a diagnosis of autism was higher for children designed in December, January, February and March as those designed for the other months of the year, the study found.

Compared to children in July, the risk for autism was 8 percent higher among those designed in December and 16 per cent higher to designed in March, according to the report, published online may 3 in epidemiology.

"Studies of the seasonal may provide clues to some of the underlying causes of autism," Irva Hertz-Picciotto, head of the division of environmental and occupational health at the school of Medicine of the University of California-Davis, said in a press release from the University. "Based on this study, it may be fruitful to continue exhibitions that present similar seasonal patterns, such as infections and nutritional deficiencies soft."

"However, it could be that the design is not the time to susceptibility," Hertz-Picciotto added. "Rather, it could, for example, be an exhibition of the third month of pregnancy, or of the second quarter, which is harmful." If so, we need to look for exposures that occur a few months after the designs at a higher risk - for example, allergens that peak in the spring and early summer. ?