Food selectivity and autism: A systematic review

Table 1 Characteristics of included studies - food selectivity

Study	Number and age	Objective	Measures	Specific findings
1	219 participants, 115 of whom were diagnosed with autism and 92 without	Determining the prevalence and nature of food selectivity traits in individuals with ASD compared to the neurotypical population	The personal history form; children’s eating behaviour inventory; the food preference inventory; the Gilliam autism rating scale	Food selectivity traits are more common in individuals with ASD than in the neurotypical population
2	74 parents and/or caregivers; 72 children	Analysing the eating patterns of pre-school and school-age children with ASD	Online questionnaire	97.67% of ASD children show food selectivity
3	Participants (n = 4930)	Examine the two-way association between ASD symptoms and eating problems during the child’s development and whether this differs according to the child’s gender	Child behaviour checklist	ASD symptoms and eating problems may represent a set of highly stable traits from early childhood to adolescence and associations did not differ according to the child’s gender
4	375 children	Assessing food preferences in children diagnosed with ASD compared to controls	Food frequency questionnaire	Food selectivity is higher in children with ASD than in children with typical development
5	46 children with ASD	Investigating predisposing factors of eating disorders and the effects of food consumed on autism scores	Brief autism mealtime behaviour inventory; autism behaviour checklist; food frequency questionnaire	Food selectivity was observed in 84.8% of children

ASD: Autism spectrum disorder.