Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2015.051
Clinical Science
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Dietary Patterns of Children
with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Study Based in Egypt
Nagwa Meguid1, Mona Anwar1*, Safaa
Zaki2, Wafaa Kandeel3, Nihad Ahmed4, Ihab
Tewfik5
1National Research Centre, Research on Children with Special
Needs Department, Giza, Egypt; 2National Research Centre, Child
Health Department, Giza, Egypt; 3National Research Centre,
Biological Anthropology Department, Giza, Egypt; 4National
Research Centre, Food Science and Nutrition Department, Giza, Egypt; 5Faculty
of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, Life Science
Department, London, United Kingdom
AIM: In the hope to assist in tailoring individualized nutritional
therapy, this study aimed to assess the nutritional status of autistic
children.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 80 autistic
children, divided into two groups: group 1 (aged 3- 5 years) and group 2
(aged 6-9 years). Diagnosis was performed based on the criteria for autistic
disorder as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, Fourth Edition, Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised and Autism
Rating Scale.
RESULTS: Socio-demographic data, anthropometric measurements and
dietary intake patterns were recorded using a validated questionnaire. The
daily intakes of calories and nutrients were converted to percentages of the
Recommended Dietary Allowance or Dietary Reference Intake based on age- and
gender-normalized DRIs. Plotting on the Egyptian sex-specific growth chart,
BMI-z scores of both age groups were slightly overweight. Autistic children
suffered inadequate intake of some micronutrients such as vitamin D and C,
calcium, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, and iron, some deficiencies
were highly significant especially at older age.
CONCLUSIONS: Tailoring a specially designed balanced diet with
appropriate micronutrient supplementation may ameliorate the severity of
autism symptoms and related abnormal behaviours.
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Citation: Meguid N, Anwar M, Zaki S, Kandeel
W, Ahmed N, Tewfik I. Dietary Patterns of Children with Autism Spectrum
Disorder: A Study Based in Egypt. OA Maced J Med Sci. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2015.051
Key words: Autistic Children; anthropometric measurements; dietary
intake; micronutrients; Egyptian.
*Correspondence: Prof. Mona Anwar. National Research Centre, Research
on Children with Special Needs Department, El Bohouth Street - Dokki, Giza,
Egypt. Phone: 0233371010. Fax: 0233370931. E-Mail: mona_anwar2@yahoo.com
Received: 14-Mar-2015; Revised: 24-Apr-2015; Accepted: 25-Apr-2015; Online
first: 07-May-2015
Copyright: © 2015 Nagwa Meguid, Mona Anwar, Safaa Zaki, Wafaa Kandeel,
Nihad Ahmed, Ihab Tewfik. This is an open access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing
interests exist.
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Meguid N
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Anwar M
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Zaki S
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Kandeel W
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Ahmed N
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Tewfik I
PubMed
- Meguid N
- Anwar M
- Zaki S
- Kandeel W
- Ahmed N
- Tewfik I
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