Associations of neighborhood greenspace, and active living environments with autism spectrum disorders: A matched case-control study in Ontario, Canada

• Published in: Environmental research 2024-07, Vol.252, p.118828-118828, Article 118828
• Main Authors: Lavigne, Éric, Abdulaziz, Kasim E., Murphy, Malia SQ, Stanescu, Cristina, Dingwall-Harvey, Alysha LJ, Stieb, David M., Walker, Mark C., Wen, Shi Wu, Shin, Hwashin Hyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: air pollution; autism; Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); canopy; case-control studies; Conditional logistic regression; Environmental factors; environmental health; green infrastructure; Greenspace metrics; Matched case-control study; odds ratio; Ontario; pregnancy; risk; trees; vegetation index; Young children
• ISSN: 0013-9351; 1096-0953
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118828

Increasing evidence links early life residential exposure to natural urban environmental attributes and positive health outcomes in children. However, few studies have focused on their protective effects on the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of neighborhood greenspace, and active living environments during pregnancy with ASD in young children (≤6 years). We conducted a population-based matched case-control study of singleton term births in Ontario, Canada for 2012–2016. The ASD and environmental data was generated using the Ontario Autism Spectrum Profile, the Better Outcomes Registry & Network Ontario, and Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium. We employed conditional logistic regressions to estimate the odds ratio (OR) between ASD and environmental factors characterizing selected greenspace metrics and neighborhoods conducive to active living (i.e., green view index (GVI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), tree canopy, park proximity and active living environments index (ALE)). We linked 8643 mother-child pairs, including 1554 cases (18%). NDVI (OR 1.034, 0.944–1.024, per Inter Quartile Range [IQR] = 0.08), GVI (OR 1.025, 95% CI 0.953–1.087, per IQR = 9.45%), tree canopy (OR 0.992, 95% CI 0.903–1.089, per IQR = 6.24%) and the different categories of ALE were not associated with ASD in adjusted models for air pollution. In contrast, living closer to a park was protective (OR 0.888, 0.833–0.948, per 0.06 increase in park proximity index), when adjusted for air pollution. This study reported mixed findings showing both null and beneficial effects of green spaces and active living environments on ASD. Further investigations are warranted to elucidate the role of exposure to greenspaces and active living environments on the development of ASD. •We linked 8643 pairs of mother-child (aged 2–6 years) with 1554 autism cases.•We investigated prenatal exposure to greenspace metrics and autism in offspring.•Residential park proximity decreased risk of autism development in children.•Low population density neighborhood amplified protective effect of park proximity.