Impacts of assisted reproductive technology on autism spectrum disorders in offspring: a Meta-analysis

Objective To systematiclly evaluate the relationship between assisted reproductive technology（ART） and autism spectrum disorders（ASD） in their offspring. Methods Systematic searches of PubMed, Web of Science, CBM, VIP, and CNKI databases were conducted to collect the cohort studies on ASD in ART progeny published from database establishment to April 1, 2022. After four independent reviewers screened the literature, extracted the data and assessed their quality with Newcastle-Ottawa scale（NOS）, a Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 15.1 software. Results Finally, 8 articles were included to assess the risk of ASD in 335507 offspring after ART（ART group） and 14233258 offspring of natural conception（NC group）. After excluding one study with greater heterogeneity by sensitivity analysis,the incidence of child with ASD in ART group was significantly higher than that in NC group（RR=1.06, 95%CI1.01-1.11, P