How eating habits change by sex in autistic children and young adults
Sex Informed Profiles of Eating Behaviors in Autism Across Childhood and Young Adulthood
This project looks at different eating patterns in autistic children, teens, and young adults to understand how they change with age and differ between males and females.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R03 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chapel Hill, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11252289 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers are combining data from four existing groups of autistic and non-autistic people, enriched for females and spanning about ages 4 to 39, to identify types of eating behaviors like food selectivity, refusal, and neophobia. They will use harmonized eating-behavior measures already collected in those cohorts to create behavior profiles and link those profiles to later clinical outcomes, including eating disorder diagnoses. The work relies on longitudinal data so patterns can be followed over time rather than from single visits. The aim is to clarify how age and sex shape restrictive or disordered eating in autism to inform future care.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with autism across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood (roughly ages 4–39), and their caregivers who can report on eating behaviors, are most relevant to this project.
Not a fit: People without autism, older adults beyond the studied age range, or individuals whose eating issues come from non-autism causes may not directly benefit from these findings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify autistic people at higher risk for severe restrictive eating or eating disorders earlier and guide more personalized prevention and care.
How similar studies have performed: Prior studies have documented elevated restrictive eating and eating disorders in autism, but pooling harmonized longitudinal data across multiple cohorts to create sex-informed profiles is a relatively new approach.
Where this research is happening
Chapel Hill, United States
- Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill — Chapel Hill, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Harrop, Clare Elizabeth — Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Study coordinator: Harrop, Clare Elizabeth
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.