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Circumcision doubles autism risk, study claims

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Janissy
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13 Jan 2015, 8:49 am

Janissy wrote:
diablo77 wrote:
Even if this is true, couldn't it just be possible that there is a genetic link among ethnic Jews? Some disorders are more prevalent in specific ethnic communities. I'm not saying there IS a disproportionate number of autistic Jews (though I am one) but it's more plausible to me than any notion that circumcision, or any post-birth environmental factor, "causes" autism rather than it being something you are born with.


This sounds like a very plausible explanation. Here is a wiki on international circumscision rates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_circumcision

Quote:
In 1986, 511 out of approximately 478,000 Danish boys aged 0–14 years were circumcised. This corresponds to a cumulative national circumcision rate of around 1.6% by the age of 15 years.[58]


Quote:
Statistics from different sources give widely varying estimates of infant circumcision rates in the United States.

In 2011, circumcision was one of the most common procedures performed during hospital stays in the U.S. There were approximately 1.1 million hospitalizations with a circumcision, a rate of 36 stays per 10,000 population. This was a decrease of 16% from 1997, when there was a rate of 43 stays per 10,000 population. It was the second-most common procedure performed on patients under one year of age.[27]

In 2005, about 56 percent of male newborns were circumcised prior to release from the hospital according to statistics from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.[28]

Data from a national survey conducted from 1999 to 2002 found that the overall prevalence of male circumcision in the United States was 79%.[29] 91% of boys born in the 1970s, and 83% of boys born in the 1980s were circumcised.[29] An earlier survey, conducted in 1992, found a circumcision prevalence of 77% in US-born men, born from 1932–1974, including 81% of non-Hispanic White men, 65% of Black men, and 54% of Hispanic men, vs. 42% of non U.S. born men who were circumcised.[30]


The circumscision rate in the U.S. is consistently pretty high, although it wanders around, possibly due to the ever-changing demographics of the U.S. But in any case, circumcision in the U.S. is uncoupled from religion. Boys from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds get circumcised.

In Denmark, circumscision is rare. I only have that one data point (since I didn't google in great depth) but I have no reason to believe it represents some sort of giant drop from an otherwise much higher rate. This means that in Denmark, unlike the U.S., circumscision will be tied tightly to religion and ethnicity. So the study could actually be showing what you say- that certain ethnic groups have a higher autism rate and are also more likely to circumcise. Some might think they have a higher autism rate because they circumcise but there isn't any evidence of that (this study isn't evidence of that).

The circumcision rate is the global highest in parts of the globe that are largely Muslim. Autism rates are not similarly high in these places but that gives us no information one way or the other because autism diagnosis is itself culturally influenced.



michael517
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13 Jan 2015, 9:58 am

When my son was born, that difficult question came up. My wife left it up to me. My decision was, please proceed, since I have no clue how does one take care of your thingy if it hasn't been done.

Besides, everybody knows Autism is caused by MMR vaccine. :twisted:



y-pod
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14 Jan 2015, 11:29 am

michael517 wrote:
When my son was born, that difficult question came up. My wife left it up to me. My decision was, please proceed, since I have no clue how does one take care of your thingy if it hasn't been done.

Besides, everybody knows Autism is caused by MMR vaccine. :twisted:


Our choices were easy. It was $400 and not covered a bit by insurance, so we said "no way". I came from a culture with almost no circumcisions and our dudes were just fine. :)


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Shadow Wolf
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14 Jan 2015, 11:42 am

While I am strongly against any permanent body modifications on children that are not medically necessary (and even things like ear piercings I do not support unless the child is old enough to clearly state they want it done), this study seems to be along the same lines of claiming childhood vaccines cause autism.



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14 Jan 2015, 11:55 am

y-pod wrote:
What put girls on the spectrum, then? :)

Circumcision... DUH!


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Feralucce
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14 Jan 2015, 12:09 pm

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article ... id=1919642 <-- no actual increase


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r84shi37
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14 Jan 2015, 12:09 pm

Image


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14 Jan 2015, 12:31 pm

I read that in the newspaper too (Jyllands-Posten). It sounded kind of ridiculous to me.

JP also quoted some critical voices though. Eg. Niels Bilenberg, professor of children's psychiatry, Syddansk Universitet in Denmark. He says that one should be careful concluding a causality, just like you can't say: there are less storks and less births, therefore the stork brings the children.
He says a more likely explanation might be that the families who choose circumcision might be a bit more nerdy, and that in this population (mostly Muslim immigrants) there might be a bit more genetical deviations, maybe due to more marriages between cousins.
Carsten Obel, professor of children's mental Health, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark, is also skeptical to claim a causality because it is well known or widely supposed that ASD is genetic.

And no, circumcision is not common in Denmark, only for religious reasons, unlike in USA.



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14 Jan 2015, 1:03 pm

AnnePande wrote:
And no, circumcision is not common in Denmark, only for religious reasons, unlike in USA.

funny thing is... it's mostly religious here.


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AnnePande
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16 Jan 2015, 3:48 pm

Feralucce wrote:
AnnePande wrote:
And no, circumcision is not common in Denmark, only for religious reasons, unlike in USA.

funny thing is... it's mostly religious here.


I have just heard that it was common in USA for other reasons too, eg. hygienic reasons.



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16 Jan 2015, 10:03 pm

78% of adult americans consider themselves to be followers of the abrahimic religions... it's mostly religious


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18 Jan 2015, 12:21 am

Feralucce wrote:
78% of adult americans consider themselves to be followers of the abrahimic religions... it's mostly religious


Just because they follow an Abrahamic religion doesn't mean their religion is the reason they do it. The New Testament is pretty clear that circumcision is no longer required.



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18 Jan 2015, 2:45 am

That study has bugger all scientific basis at all, it's not worth the paper it's written on.



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18 Jan 2015, 3:13 am



The_Walrus
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18 Jan 2015, 12:23 pm

Janissy wrote:
diablo77 wrote:
Even if this is true, couldn't it just be possible that there is a genetic link among ethnic Jews? Some disorders are more prevalent in specific ethnic communities. I'm not saying there IS a disproportionate number of autistic Jews (though I am one) but it's more plausible to me than any notion that circumcision, or any post-birth environmental factor, "causes" autism rather than it being something you are born with.


This sounds like a very plausible explanation.

That does not explain the data captured by the researchers. Denmark has a very small Jewish population. Without re-checking the data, I believe they found only one autistic Jew in their sample. The association was a result of higher rates of diagnosis in the Muslim population. That is a very genetically diverse group, but further analysis could theoretically show that some sub-sets were disproportionately autistic.