ArticlePathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology2024
Autistic Children/Adolescents Have Lower Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Higher Salivary IL-6 Concentration: Potential Diet-Inflammation Links?
Article in Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Body weight in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Associations Between Dietary Patterns, Inflammatory Biomarkers, and Behavioral Symptoms in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Case-Control Exploratory Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Research progress on the microbiota-gut-brain axis in autism spectrum disorder: a narrative review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Microbiota Gut-Brain Axis and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Metagenomic Characterization of Gut Microbiota in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Microbial Signatures and Modulation by Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Probiotics.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Interventions to Promote Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Scoping Review.Nutrients · 2025Article
- The Redox Revolution in Brain Medicine: Targeting Oxidative Stress with AI, Multi-Omics and Mitochondrial Therapies for the Precision Eradication of Neurodegeneration.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders. Many patients with ASD often show behavioral problems at mealtimes, including food selectivity and atypical feeding behaviors. The Mediterranean diet (MD) has a beneficial effect on mental health for the general population across different ages. There is evidence that good adherence to the MD is effective in reducing peripheral inflammatory markers, such as the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The present study was designed to evaluate adherence to the MD in children with ASD using age- and sex-matched, typically developing individuals (TDs) as a control group and to determine whether differences in adherence to the MD are associated with salivary IL-6 and IL-6 receptor concentration.
methodsTwenty children and adolescents with ASD (mean age 9.95 ± 0.65 years) and twenty TDs (mean age: 9.85 ± 0.59 years) participated in this study (N = 16 males and N = 4 females in each group). Participants with ASD were enrolled in a psychiatric consultation in Valencia (Spain), and TDs were recruited from two public schools in Valencia. The parents of both ASD and TD groups answered the items in a validated Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents (KIDMED) questionnaire on their children's adherence to the MD.
resultsThe mean adherence to MD score was significantly lower in the ASD group (9.10 ± 0.42) (range 6-12) than in the TD group (10.35 ± 0.31) (range 8-12) (
conclusionsChildren and adolescents with ASD showed significantly lower adherence to the MD, which can contribute to nutritional deficits described in ASD, and the role of BMI composition (fat versus lean mass) needs to be further investigated in this group. The concentration of IL-6 and its receptor in saliva is associated with adherence to the MD, suggesting a possible link between IL-6 and diet in ASD. Further studies to clarify the associations between IL-6, psychiatric alterations, and diet in ASD are needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.