Mediating Risk Factors

Maternal HIV may expose the fetus to inflammatory responses during pregnancy. The article links immune and inflammatory mechanisms to autism development. The main confounders in the study are maternal age, maternal education, maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and poverty risk. Proposed mediating risks include birth outcomes, anaemia, breastfeeding exposures, infections, immune dysregulation, and inflammation. The study proposes several prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal pathways through which maternal HIV and antiretroviral exposure may relate to autism outcomes. The project aims to identify potentially modifiable mediators between HIV or antiretroviral exposure and autism outcomes.