Abstract

Background: Complementary alternatives are widely used by parents who have children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Administration of selenium in the form of high selenium functional foods (HSFF) and selenium (SS) supplements is thought to improve development through the Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx), IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α pathway.

Research Methods: A true experimental study with a randomized controlled clinical trial group pre-post-test design with double blinds. The research subjects were 65 ASD children, 22 subjects were given HSFF intervention, and 22 subjects were given SS intervention, 21 control subjects, with inclusion criteria: children diagnosed with ASD, aged 2-6 years, receiving medical and non-medical therapy. The intervention was given for 3 months. Child development was measured by the ATEC score. The levels of GPx, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α were measured by ELISA method. Normal data or not were tested with Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality, data analysis was tested with paired t-parametric, unpaired and One Way Anova and non-parametric Chi-Square test, Kruskal Wallis.

Results: Improvements in development were significantly higher in the SS intervention group with a mean of -54.77±-7.03 compared to the HSFF intervention group -20.28±1.33 and the control group -8.00±-0.49 (ρ= 0.000). Likewise on the sub-scale of the development of communication, social interaction, sensory and behavior. The significant increase in GPx in the control group averaged 9.71±21.34µU/ml compared to the SS group 5.19±4.29µU/ml and the HSFF group 5.19±1.49µU/ml (ρ=0.770). IL-1β only decreased significantly in the control group with a mean of -23.651±-9.38ng/L (ρ=0.217). IL-6 decreased significantly in the HSFF group -38.80±-102.72ng/L and the control group -32.72±-18.22ng/L (ρ=0.691). TNF- decreased significantly only occurred in the SS group -26.97±-77.27ng/L (ρ=0.355).

Conclusion: It is proven that the role of selenium in HSFF and SS significantly improves the development of ASD children. Improvements in SS were significantly better than HSFF, in terms of communication, sensory, behavioral and communication development. Neither HSFF nor SS was shown to increase GPx. Neither HSFF nor SS was shown to reduce IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α.

Keywords

Non-medical therapy