Comparison of dietary intake and anthropometric indicators of autistic and non-Autistic children

Abstract

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent a range of conditions that involve difficulties with communication, social relatedness, and behavioral inflexibility. Parents of autistic children frequently have reported problems of eating in their children. These problems may put them to the danger of inadequate nutrient intake and malnutrition. Also, some studies reported that nutrient intake and body mass index is different in autistic and non-Autistic children. The aim of this study is comparison of dietary intake and anthropometric indicators between autistic and non-Autistic children. Method: 45 autistic and 90 non autistic children participated in our study. dietary intakes was obtained from 3-day dietary record questionnaire. Results: That body mass index or BMI has no significant difference between autistic and non-Autistic subjects (P= 0.15). We found a marginally significant difference between two groups for energy intake ( P= 0.056). Autistic group significantly consumed fewer dairy and fruit group (P<0.001). They also consumed less calcium (P=001.0) and more vitamin B6 (P <0.001), zinc (P<0.001) and vegetables (P<0.001). Conclusion: we found that dietary intakes of autistic and non-Autistic peoples approximately are similar although food groups (dairy, fruit, vegetable), calcium, zinc and vitamin B6 had a significant difference between two groups. © 2018 Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.