Search

Background: The microbiota plays a key role in early immunity maturation that affects infant health and is associated with the development of non-communicable diseases and allergies in later life. Objective: The MYBIOTA is a prospective mother-infant cohort study in Malaysia aiming to determine the association between gut microbiota with infant health (temperament, gastrointestinal disorders, eczema, asthma, and developmental delays) in Selangor, Malaysia. Methods: Pregnant mothers will be enrolled in their first trimester of pregnancy, and follow-ups will be done for infants during their first year of life. Maternal-infant biological samples (blood, feces, saliva, urine, and breast milk), anthropometric, dietary, and clinical information will be collected at different time points from early pregnancy to 12 months postpartum. Discussion: This study could provide a better understanding of the colonization and development of the gut microbiome during early life and its impact on infant health. Clinical trial registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier NCT04919265.

Autism is a life-long neurodevelopmental condition that affects the ability of a person to communicate and relate to others. Its symptoms can be conceptualized along a continuum ranging from mild to severe expression. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) of higher symptom severity exhibit different behaviors and characteristics compared to their counterparts of lower symptom severity. To date, there is limited nutrition-related study in children with ASD of different autism severity in Malaysia. Most of the previous local studies on ASD in Malaysia focused on education, engineering, information technology, medical, and psychology. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine the associations between sociodemographic factors, parental factors, and lifestyle factors with autism severity in children with ASD at a selected autism intervention center in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 224 children with ASD (82.6% boys and 17.4% girls) with a mean age of 5.19 ± 0.87 years and their mothers participated in this study. Mothers completed a self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic background, autism severity, parenting style, parental feeding practices, parenting stress, child sleep habits, and child eating behaviors. A 3-day food diary was recorded by the mothers at home to determine dietary adequacy of their children. Body weight and height of the children were measured by the researcher in the center. The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) was used to measure autism severity. Results showed that the mean score of the SCQ was 20.12 ± 6.93, ranging from 3 to 38. Majority of the children with ASD in this study (78.1%) were in the high level of autism severity. In term of nutritional status, the prevalence rates of underweight, stunting, wasting/thinness, and overweight/obesity were 9.3%, 8.0%, 4.0%, and 21.5%, respectively. More than half of the children with ASD did not meet the recommended nutrient intake (RNI) requirement for fiber (99.6%), th