Associations between maternal occupational history and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in offspring in Denmark.

Publication date: May 12, 2026

We investigated associations between maternal occupations and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. We obtained data for 1702 ASD cases born between 1973 and 2012 from the Danish National Patient Registry and matched each case to up to 100 population based controls based on sex and birth year (n=110 234). Mothers’ employment histories were obtained from the Danish Pension Fund Registry. Conditional logistic regression models were used to test associations between occupations held ever, 1 year before conception, during pregnancy and during infancy, adjusting for the mother’s age and history of neuropsychiatric disorders, parity and residential location. There were increased odds of having a child with ASD for mothers who were employed before conception up to infancy in ground transportation (adjusted OR (aOR) 1. 24, 95% CI 1. 08 to 1. 42; q=0. 036), public administration (aOR 1. 20, 95% CI 1. 07 to 1. 35; q=0. 018) and military/defence occupations (aOR 1. 59, 95% CI 1. 39 to 1. 82; q

Semantics

Original Article