Maternal diabetes linked to higher neurodevelopmental disorder risk

A large-scale systematic analysis published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in 2025 has linked maternal diabetes to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The study, which synthesized data from 202 observational studies involving over 56 million mother-child pairs, found that maternal diabetes is associated with an approximately 28 percent higher relative risk for neurodevelopmental disorders overall.

Specifically, the research noted an estimated 25 percent increase in the relative risk for autism spectrum disorder and a 30 percent increase for ADHD. Researchers emphasized that these figures represent relative differences between groups rather than an individual probability of diagnosis. They also noted that the statistical association does not prove that maternal diabetes directly causes these conditions, and that individual risk remains dependent on various genetic, biological, and environmental factors.