Table 3. Physical health comorbidity, family history, social demographics and substance use in participants with ASD and matched controls.
Reported physical health comorbidity, family health history, social demographics and substance use in participants with ASD based on NCMH questionnaire response fields. The comparison group are matched healthy controls. For normally distributed samples, analyses were binomial logistic regression with age and sex as covariates. Where data were non-normally distributed, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used with Fisher’s exact test for expected cell counts <5. n - number of individuals; % - percentage of total who responded; FHx - reported family history.
| ASD participants (n,%) | Matched controls (n,%) | Odds Ratio (95% confidence interval) | p | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Currently Working | 31, 32.0% | 53, 72.6% | 0.174 (0.09-0.35) | <.001 |
| Currently not working due to sickness/disablement | 48, 49.5% | 1, 0.01% | 69.305 (9.23-520.42) | <.001 |
| Biological Children | 36, 35.6% | 41, 54.0% | 0.526 (0.26-1.05) | 0.068 |
| Married or Cohabited | 49, 50.5% | 58, 76.3% | 0.29 (0.14-0.64) | 0.002 |
| Regular smoker | 34, 43.0% | 35, 46.1% | 1.017 (0.99-1.04) | 0.169 |
| Problems through alcohol use | 21, 36.2% | 5, 8.3% | 6.42 (2.20-18.72) | 0.001 |
| Regular cannabinoids use | 22, 27.9% | 16, 21.1% | 1.00 (0.97-1.03) | 0.903 |
| Problems through cannabinoid use | 9, 29.0% | 4, 16.0% | 1.02 (0.96-1.08) | 0.590 |
| Use of other street drugs | 10, 12.5% | 4, 5.3% | 0.99 (0.95-1.04) | 0.711 |
| Problems through other street drugs use | 4, 33.3% | 1, 7.7% | 0.98 (0.89-1.08) | 0.682 |
| Respiratory | 36, 34.3% | 16, 21.1% | 1.84 (0.91-3.71) | 0.089 |
| Neurological | 42, 40.0% | 14, 14.0% | 2.83 (1.40-5.74) | 0.004 |
| Metabolic | 18, 17.1% | 8, 18.4% | 1.66 (0.67-4.11) | 0.269 |
| Rheumatological and Orthopaedic | 12, 11.4% | 3, 3.9% | 3.06 (0.82-11.33) | 0.095 |
| Cardiological | 17, 16.2% | 6, 7.9% | 2.09 (0.77-5.66) | 0.148 |
| Renal and GI | 5, 4.8% | 4, 5.3% | 0.91 (0.23-3.59) | 0.896 |
| Oncological | 1, 1.0% | 0, 0% | - | 0.996 |
| FHx ADHD | 14 (14.1%) | 9 (12.2%) | 1.22 (0.49-3.02) | 0.674 |
| FHx Bipolar Disorder | 9 (9.3%) | 11 (15.1%) | 0.58 (0.22-1.51) | 0.265 |
| FHx Schizophrenia | 6 (6.3%) | 3 (4.1%) | 1.58 (0.38-6.60) | 0.529 |
| FHx Dementia | 22 (22.4%) | 16 (22.5%) | 1.01 (0.48-2.11) | 0.977 |
| FHx PTSD | 5 (5.1%) | 2 (2.7%) | 1.80 (0.34-9.67) | 0.491 |
| FHx Autism | 30 (34.1%) | 16 (21.6%) | 2.16 (1.03-4.53) | 0.041 |