Dietary intake and gastrointestinal symptoms are altered in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: the relative contribution of autism-linked traits

Li, Hailin; Huang, Saijun; Jing, Jin; Yu, Hong; Gu, Tingfeng; Ou, Xiaoxuan; Pan, Shuolin; Zhu, Yanna; Su, Xi

doi:10.1186/s12937-024-00930-8

Table 2 The relative contribution of autism-linked traits to poorer diets in children with ASD (n = 121)

From: Dietary intake and gastrointestinal symptoms are altered in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: the relative contribution of autism-linked traits

Autism-linked traits	Daily vegetable intake^a			Daily fruit intake^a			Daily food variety^b
Autism-linked traits	Crude β coefficient (95% CI)	P value	Effect size	Crude β coefficient (95% CI)	P value	Effect size	Crude β coefficient (95% CI)			P value	Effect size
ASD symptom severity	0.050 (–0.131 to 0.232)	0.584	0.003	–0.057 (–0.239 to 0.124)	0.533	0.003	–0.128 (–0.308 to 0.053)			0.163	0.016
Self-injurious behavior	–0.115 (–0.295 to 0.065)	0.209	0.013	–0.140 (–0.320 to 0.040)	0.125	0.020	–0.301 (–0.475 to − 0.128)			0.001	0.100
Compulsive behavior	–0.245 (–0.421 to − 0.069)	0.007	0.064	–0.052 (–0.233 to 0.130)	0.572	0.003	–0.177 (–0.355 to 0.002)			0.053	0.032
Taste/smell sensitivity	0.178 (–0.001 to 0.357)	0.050	0.033	0.247 (0.071 to 0.423)	0.006	0.065	0.289 (0.115 to 0.462			0.001	0.091
Limited variety	–0.250 (–0.426 to − 0.074)	0.006	0.066	–0.141 (–0.321 to 0.038)	0.122	0.020	–0.279 (–0.453 to − 0.104)			0.002	0.085
	Inadequate dietary intake^c				Unbalanced dietary intake^c
	Crude β coefficient (95% CI)	P value		Effect size	Crude β coefficient (95% CI)			P value		Effect size
ASD symptom severity	0.028 (–0.154 to 0.209)	0.764		0.001	0.055 (–0.126 to 0.236)			0.548		0.003
Self-injurious behavior	0.168 (–0.011 to 0.347)	0.066		0.029	0.167 (–0.013 to 0.346)			0.068		0.029
Compulsive behavior	0.075 (–0.106 to 0.256)	0.416		0.006	0.053 (–0.128 to 0.234)			0.564		0.003
Taste/smell sensitivity	–0.238 (–0.415 to − 0.062)	0.008		0.061	–0.231 (–0.408 to − 0.054)			0.011		0.056
Limited variety	0.229 (0.053 to 0.406)	0.011		0.056	0.233 (0.056 to 0.410)			0.010		0.057
	Daily vegetable intake^a			Daily fruit intake^a			Daily food variety^b
	Adjusted β coefficient (95% CI)	P value	Effect size	Adjusted β coefficient (95% CI)	P value	Effect size	Adjusted β coefficient (95% CI)			P value	Effect size
ASD symptom severity	0.201 (–0.044 to 0.445)	0.097	0.267	–0.053 (–0.276 to 0.171)	0.631	0.175	–0.091 (–0.335 to 0.154)			0.450	0.280
Self-injurious behavior	–0.048 (–0.253 to 0.156)	0.641		–0.090 (–0.302 to 0.122)	0.402		–0.228 (–0.432 to − 0.024)			0.029
Compulsive behavior	–0.291 (–0.504 to − 0.077)	0.008		0.057 (–0.158 to 0.271)	0.600		–0.013 (–0.221 to 0.194)			0.899
Taste/smell sensitivity	–0.030 (–0.254 to 0.194)	0.792		0.240 (0.009 to 0.470)	0.042		0.091 (–0.133 to 0.314)			0.423
Limited variety	–0.206 (–0.426 to 0.013)	0.065		0.012 (–0.213 to 0.237)	0.917		–0.195 (–0.416 to 0.025)			0.082
	Inadequate dietary intake^c				Unbalanced dietary intake^c
	Adjusted β coefficient (95% CI)	P value		Effect size	Adjusted β coefficient (95% CI)				P value	Effect size
ASD symptom severity	0.261 (0.005 to 0.517)	0.046		0.304	0.347 (0.092 to 0.601)				0.008	0.350
Self-injurious behavior	0.151 (–0.052 to 0.355)	0.144			0.139 (–0.060 to 0.338)				0.169
Compulsive behavior	0.004 (–0.201 to 0.209)	0.972			–0.032 (–0.235 to 0.171)				0.756
Taste/smell sensitivity	–0.017 (–0.242 to 0.209)	0.883			0.002 (–0.218 to 0.222)				0.983
Limited variety	0.289 (0.063 to 0.514)	0.013			0.312 (0.093 to 0.531)				0.006

^a g/day. ^b Food variety scores ranged from − 12 to 0, with lower scores representing less variety of food. ^c Evaluated using the low bound score (LBS)/diet quality distance (DQD), with higher scores representing a higher degree of inadequate/unbalanced diets. ASD symptom severity was evaluated by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Restricted repetitive behaviors, sensory profiles, and mealtime behaviors were evaluated by subscale and total scores of repetitive behavior scale-revised (RBS-R), short sensory profile (SSP), and brief autism mealtime behavior inventory (BAMBI), respectively. Adjusted for child’s age, sex, intellectual functioning, birth mode, average daily sleep duration, average daily SB time, average daily MVPA time, average daily walking time, maternal educational attainment, monthly per-capita income, and parenting behavior. Effect size = Cohen’s f² for mixed-effects models. ASD: autism spectrum disorder, CI: confidence interval, SB: sedentary behavior, MVPA: moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

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