Parental migration and Asperger’s syndrome

Parental immigration has been suggested as a possible risk factor for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but findings have been inconsistent. Very few studies have focused specifically on Asperger’s syndrome. The aim of this study was to examine the association between maternal and paternal immigration and the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome in offspring. The study was a nested case–control study based on a national birth cohort in Finland. Children born in 1987–2005 and diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome by the year 2007 were identified from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register (N = 1,783). Four matched controls for each case were selected from the Finnish Medical Birth Register (N = 7,106). Information on maternal and paternal country of birth and mother tongue was collected from the Finnish Central Population Register. The study showed that children whose parents are both immigrants have a significantly lower likelihood of being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome than those with two Finnish parents [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.2, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.1–0.4]. No significant associations were found between having only one immigrant parent and the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome. A regional analysis showed a significantly decreased likelihood of the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome in children whose mother (aOR 0.1, 95 % CI 0.01–0.5) or father (aOR 0.2, 95 % CI 0.05–0.5) was born in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings may help in identifying risk factors for different ASD subtypes. On the other hand, they might reflect service use of immigrant families in Finland.