Fig. 5: Overview of the study results.

Tile colors capture the statistical significance of the association between the given maternal diagnosis and offspring autism and the change in the point estimate relative to the reference model (‘minor’ change refers to an HR change of ≤40%, and ‘major’ change refers to an HR change of >40%; the numerical parameters underlying this categorization are presented in Supplementary Tables 2–4, 11 and 12). Associations not estimated due to insufficient frequency of the diagnosis in the analytical subsample, or other methodological considerations, are presented as ‘NA’. The interpretation of the tile color changes by analysis type or column. In the multidiagnosis model, red and light blue tiles indicate diagnoses whose association with autism was reduced after concurrent adjustment for comorbid conditions, suggesting diagnoses whose original association with autism is most likely to have arisen due to comorbidity with other diagnoses. In sibling analysis, red tiles indicate diagnoses whose point estimate shows a relative change of >40% when compared to the point estimate from the reference model, suggesting familial confounding (that is, (HR_sib − 1)/(HR_ref − 1) < 0.6 or (HR_sib − 1)/(HR_ref − 1) > 1.4); yellow tiles indicate diagnoses that may be associated with autism within families, but our analyses were underpowered to detect such effects (the loss of significance was due to widening of the CIs, with little change in the point estimate; for example, injuries of the eye and an unspecified body region, diabetes in pregnancy). In paternal analysis, red tiles indicate diagnoses associated with autism in the mother, but not in the father, suggesting a lack of evidence for familial confounding (consistent with either direct effects of those conditions on the fetus or indirect genetic effects; for example, injury codes, disorders of the patella and asthma); dark and light blue tiles suggest evidence for familial confounding (without and with evidence for additional contributions of a maternal effect, respectively; for example, direct effects on the fetus and/or indirect genetic effects). Reference models for sibling analysis and the paternal model are provided in Supplementary Tables 11 (model 5) and 12 (model 5), respectively.