Are Rainy Days Linked to Autism?

Could the environment play a role in children developing autism?

A newly released study found children in California, Oregon and Washington are more likely to develop autism if they lived in counties with higher levels of annual rainfall when they were 3 or younger, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The study said bad weather could lead to more TV and video viewing, which in very young children have been linked to language-development problems. It also suggested that staying indoors could cause a deficit of vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," increasingly found to play a role in health.

The study was published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The study did stress that a link between autism rain has not been clinically proven and further testing is needed.

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