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Table 1 Characteristics of the study population

From: The bidirectional association between sleep problems and autism spectrum disorder: a population-based cohort study

 

N

No ASD diagnosis

N = 5062

ASD diagnosis

N = 81

Child characteristics

Gender (% girls)

5143

50.1

13.6*

Gestational age at birth (weeks)

5102

39.80 (0.03)

39.36 (0.26)*

Ethnicity (%)

 Dutch

3386

69.7

75.6

 Other-Western

461

9.5

7.7

 Non-Western

1007

20.8

16.7

Sleep problem score

 At 1.5 years

3875

1.51 (0.03)

1.75 (0.26)

 At 3 years

3837

1.50 (0.03)

1.77 (0.24)

 At 6 years

4981

1.02 (0.02)

1.85 (0.25)*

 At 9 years

4003

0.82 (0.02)

1.92 (0.28)*

Trajectories of sleep problems (%)

 Increasing sleep problems

622

15.6

33.8*

 Decreasing sleep problems

2432

54.8

43.7*

 Stable medium sleep problems

1318

29.6

22.5

Autistic traits

 PDP score––1.5 years

3840

1.77 (0.03)

2.26 (0.23)*

 PDP score––3 years

3823

2.03 (0.03)

4.81 (0.44)*

 SRS score––6 years

5130

0.22 (0.00)

0.97 (0.08)*

Abdominal pain (%)

5064

7.5

5.7

Functional constipation (%)

4894

3.5

7.5

Maternal Characteristics

Age at inclusion (years)

5143

31.4 (0.1)

31.0 (0.5)

Educational level (%)

   

 No education/primary school

275

5.7

2.6

 High school/lower vocational training

1885

38.6

51.3*

 Higher vocational or academic training

2699

55.7

46.2

Psychopathology score

5295

0.24 (0.00)

0.38 (0.07)*

  1. Data represent means (SDs) unless specified otherwise
  2. Abbreviations: PDP Pervasive Development Problem scale, SRS Social Responsiveness Scale
  3. *p < 0.05