Mother’s Adverse Childhood Experiences and Elevated Risk of Neuro-developmental Disorders in Offspring: a Case–Control Study

This case–control study estimated the association between maternal adverse childhood experience (ACE) and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) in offspring. The study included 122 mothers with NDD children as case and 234 mothers with healthy children as control from 3 urban sub-districts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Respondents’ socio-demographic variables and ACE history were collected. A multivariate regression model was used to examine the association. Mothers with a history of more than 3 ACE are fourfold more vulnerable to give birth to NDD offspring than mothers having 3 or less ACE after adjusting with other covariates. The findings implicate the importance of routine screening of pregnant women for ACE to minimize the risk of giving birth to NDD offspring and taking effective measures to protect children from all types of violence in line with the UN convention on the rights of the child.