President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating a commission to study childhood chronic diseases, to be chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has championed vaccine skepticism and baseless theories about autism. 

The order is the first step in Trump's campaign promise to "continue my long record of standing up to Big Pharma by creating a special presidential commission to investigate what is causing the decades-long increase in childhood diseases, autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility and other chronic health problems." 

It's one of 75 Trump campaign promises PolitiFact is tracking on the MAGA-Meter. Over the next four years, we will periodically evaluate the administration's progress on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term and Joe Biden. 

The executive order says within six months, the commission will develop a strategy to restructure the government's response to childhood chronic diseases. The commission will assess the "threat" posed to children by "potential over-utilization of medication," certain food ingredients, and chemicals and psychiatric medications.

Medical experts said some statements in Trump's order omit important context. For example, the order says, "American life expectancy significantly lags behind other developed countries."

But Dr. Georges Benjamin, American Public Health Association executive director, said one study showed that lack of access to universal health care and underinvestment in primary care and prevention are the reasons the U.S. lags other nations. 

Trump's order says "autism spectrum disorder now affects 1 in 36 children in the United States," calling it "a staggering increase" compared with the 1980s.

The figure is accurate, said Evan H. Dart, University of South Florida associate professor in the school psychology program, but there are reasonable explanations for why that might be the case.

The autism criteria shifted in 2013 when three diagnoses — autistic disorder; Asperger's syndrome; and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified — were merged into a singular autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, Dart said.

"This alone could explain large increases in medical diagnoses of autism since the 2000s, even more so compared to the 1980s," when autism first appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Dart said.

Autism spectrum disorder covers a wide range of symptoms and allows individuals with very mild impairments to receive a diagnosis. "We have very sensitive screeners that help detect autism in extremely young children now that simply didn't exist in the 1980s," Dart said.

The executive order didn't address childhood vaccines. Dr. Irwin Redlener, Albert Einstein College of Medicine professor of pediatrics, said vaccines have improved child survival across the world. 

Experts told us that addressing chronic conditions requires examining multiple factors.

For example, with obesity, the commission should address nutritional education, access to healthy foods, physical activity promotion, environmental factors, health care interventions and research and data collection, said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, a Harvard University obesity medicine physician and pediatrician.

We will monitor the commission's progress, including when it reaches the timetables for action. For now, we rate Trump's progress In the Works. 

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