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This study analyzed over 20 years of electronic health records from 42,204 children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) and nearly 300,000 controls to examine gastrointestinal (GI) conditions across different NDDs. The research found that GI conditions were elevated across all studied neurodevelopmental disabilities, including ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and intellectual disability, with intellectual disability and cerebral palsy showing the strongest associations. The findings challenge the prevailing focus on autism-specific GI dysfunction and demonstrate that GI problems are a common feature across the spectrum of neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Why it matters
This research suggests that current clinical guidelines and screening tools focused primarily on GI issues in autism may be too narrow, potentially missing GI problems in children with other neurodevelopmental disabilities. A broader, transdiagnostic approach to assessing and managing gastrointestinal dysfunction in all children with NDDs could improve clinical care and reduce associated behavioral symptoms and healthcare costs.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Gastrointestinal (GI) conditions are common among children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs), and are associated with functional impairment, behavioral symptoms, and increased health care utilization. A unique relationship between autism and GI dysfunction has been proposed, leading to a focus on autism in GI research, management guidelines, and clinical tool development. Leveraging >20 years of electronic health record data and a cohort of 42,204 cases with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or intellectual disability and 297,402 controls without NDDs, we quantified associations between NDDs and GI conditions in children. GI conditions were more common in cases than controls across all individual NDDs; intellectual disability and cerebral palsy were most strongly associated with having a GI condition. In this work, clinically recognized GI morbidity was elevated across all NDDs and not unique to autism, suggesting that a broader, transdiagnostic approach to GI dysfunction in children with NDDs is warranted.