Health Desk
A large US cohort study published in JAMA Pediatrics found no evidence that neonatal circumcision increases the risk of autism in boys.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analyzed data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort, which included 2,771 boys enrolled across 14 US study sites. Of these, 1,840 (66%) underwent circumcision before hospital discharge after birth, while 192 (7%) were diagnosed with autism at a mean age of 3.8 years.
Autism was identified in 6% of circumcised boys compared with 9% of uncircumcised boys. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, including parental age and family history of autism, neonatal circumcision was not significantly associated with autism risk.
The investigators also assessed neonatal acetaminophen exposure but found it occurred too infrequently (less than 5%) to allow meaningful analysis of its relationship with autism.
The findings address concerns raised by earlier observational studies that suggested a possible association between circumcision and autism. The authors emphasized that although continued evaluation of the safety of common medical procedures remains important, their results should reassure parents that neonatal circumcision was not linked to an increased likelihood of autism.