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. 2021 Sep 30:12:742937.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.742937. eCollection 2021.

Association Between Peripheral Blood Levels of Vitamin A and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children: A Meta-Analysis

Ni Wang  1 , Yuqian Zhao  2 , Junwei Gao  3
Affiliations

Association Between Peripheral Blood Levels of Vitamin A and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children: A Meta-Analysis

Ni Wang et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Vitamin A is an essential fat-soluble micronutrient that plays important roles in a surprisingly wide variety of biological processes from early growth and development to brain maintenance. Numerous clinical studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between peripheral vitamin A levels and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the results of these studies are controversial. Therefore, we assessed the association between peripheral vitamin A levels and ASD in the present meta-analysis. Relevant records were retrieved through the Embase, Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases up to 13 November 2020. Reference lists were also searched and analyzed. Hedges' g with its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association between peripheral vitamin A levels and ASD. A fixed or random effects model was selected according to a heterogeneity test in overall and subgroup analyses. Five records (six studies) with 935 ASD children and 516 healthy children were included in the present study. Significantly decreased peripheral vitamin A concentrations were observed in ASD children compared with healthy children (Hedges' g = -0.600, 95% CI -1.153 to -0.048, P = 0.033). A similar result was also obtained after removing the studies identified by Galbraith plots. In addition, no obvious publication bias was found in the meta-analysis. The findings of our meta-analysis suggested decreased peripheral vitamin A levels in ASD children compared with healthy children. Further investigations into the effects of vitamin A on the development of ASD are warranted.

Keywords: association; autism spectrum disorder; peripheral blood; serum; vitamin A.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of study identification.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot for the random-effects meta-analysis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plot for the random-effects meta-analysis of the serum subgroup.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plot for the random-effects meta-analysis of the Chinese subgroup.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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