Vitamin A Status and Sleep Associations in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Xueli Xiang's research dataset contains observational data from a study of 361 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It examines associations between vitamin A levels, sleep problems assessed by the CSHQ, symptom severity from CARS and SRS scales, and expression levels of RARβ, BMAL1, and CLOCK genes. The data was uploaded to figshare in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze correlation between vitamin A levels and CSHQ sleep problem scores in 361 children with ASD.
• Model associations between CARS/SRS symptom severity scores and RARβ/BMAL1/CLOCK gene expression levels.
• Investigate the predictive relationship of vitamin A status on core autism symptoms and sleep disturbances.
• Examine the co-variation of peripheral blood mononuclear cell mRNA levels for RARβ and clock genes BMAL1 and CLOCK.

Strengths

• Includes data from 361 children with ASD, providing a substantive clinical sample.
• Combines multiple measurement types: biochemical (vitamin A levels), genetic (qPCR for RARβ, BMAL1, CLOCK), and behavioral (CSHQ, CARS, SRS).

Limitations

• Dataset is very small at 64.9 KB, likely containing only summary or key results, not the full raw observational data.
• As an observational study, it demonstrates correlation but not causation between the measured variables.
• Geographic and demographic coverage of the 361 participants is unknown, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Research by author Xueli Xiang, shared via figshare.

Collection Method

Observational study collecting clinical assessments, blood samples for vitamin A analysis, and qPCR on peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Freshness

Last updated April 2026.