Dataset Information

The reversing association between advanced maternal age and child cognitive ability: evidence from three UK birth cohorts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies on advanced maternal age-defined here as age 35 or older-and children's cognitive ability report mixed evidence. Previous studies have not analysed how the time period considered in existing studies influences the association.

Methods

We analysed trends in the association between maternal age and cognitive ability using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study ( n ?=?10?969), the 1970 British Cohort Study ( n ?=?9362) and the 2000-2002 Millennium Cohort Study ( n ?=?11?600). The dependent variable measures cognitive ability at age 10/11 years. Cognitive scores were standardised to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one.

Results

For the 1958-70 cohort studies, maternal ages 35 -39 were negatively associated with children's cognitive ability compared with maternal ages 25-29 (1958 cohort ??=?-0.06 standard deviations (SD) 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.13, -0.00; 1970 cohort ??=?-0.12 SD 95% CI: -0.20, -0.03). By contrast, for the 2000-2002 cohort study maternal ages 35-39 were positively associated with cognitive ability (??=?0.16 SD 95% CI: 0.09, 0.23). For maternal ages 40+, the pattern was qualitatively similar. These cross-cohort differences were explained by the fact that in the earlier cohorts advanced maternal age was associated with high parity, whereas in the 2000-2002 cohort it was associated with socioeconomically advantaged family background.

Conclusions

The association between advanced maternal age and children's cognitive ability changed from negative in the 1958 and 1970 cohorts to positive in the 2000-2002 cohort because of changing parental characteristics. The time period considered can constitute an important factor in determining the association between maternal age and cognitive ability.

SUBMITTER: Goisis A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5837600 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The reversing association between advanced maternal age and child cognitive ability: evidence from three UK birth cohorts.

Goisis Alice A Schneider Daniel C DC Myrskylä Mikko M

International journal of epidemiology 20170601 3

<h4>Background</h4>Studies on advanced maternal age-defined here as age 35 or older-and children's cognitive ability report mixed evidence. Previous studies have not analysed how the time period considered in existing studies influences the association.<h4>Methods</h4>We analysed trends in the association between maternal age and cognitive ability using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study ( n = 10 969), the 1970 British Cohort Study ( n = 9362) and the 2000-2002 Millennium Coho ...[more]

PMID: 28177512

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Project description:IntroductionPrevious studies have reported associations between prenatal cell phone use and child behavioral problems, but findings have been inconsistent and based on retrospective assessment of cell phone use. This study aimed to assess this association in a multi-national analysis, using data from three cohorts with prospective data on prenatal cell phone use, together with previously published data from two cohorts with retrospectively collected cell phone use data.MethodsWe used individual participant data from 83,884 mother-child pairs in the five cohorts from Denmark (1996-2002), Korea (2006-2011), the Netherlands (2003-2004), Norway (2004-2008), and Spain (2003-2008). We categorized cell phone use into none, low, medium, and high, based on frequency of calls during pregnancy reported by the mothers. Child behavioral problems (reported by mothers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or Child Behavior Checklist) were classified in the borderline/clinical and clinical ranges using validated cut-offs in children aged 5-7years. Cohort specific risk estimates were meta-analyzed.ResultsOverall, 38.8% of mothers, mostly from the Danish cohort, reported no cell phone use during pregnancy and these mothers were less likely to have a child with overall behavioral, hyperactivity/inattention or emotional problems. Evidence for a trend of increasing risk of child behavioral problems through the maternal cell phone use categories was observed for hyperactivity/inattention problems (OR for problems in the clinical range: 1.11, 95%CI 1.01, 1.22; 1.28, 95%CI 1.12, 1.48, among children of medium and high users, respectively). This association was fairly consistent across cohorts and between cohorts with retrospectively and prospectively collected cell phone use data.ConclusionsMaternal cell phone use during pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk for behavioral problems, particularly hyperactivity/inattention problems, in the offspring. The interpretation of these results is unclear as uncontrolled confounding may influence both maternal cell phone use and child behavioral problems.

Project description:BackgroundShigella infections cause inflammation, which has been hypothesized to mediate the associations between Shigella and child development outcomes among children in low-resource settings. We aimed to assess whether early life inflammation and Shigella infections affect school-aged growth and cognitive outcomes from 6-8 years of age.Methodology/principal findingsWe conducted follow-up assessments of anthropometry, reasoning skills, and verbal fluency in 451 children at 6-8 years of age in the Brazil, Tanzania, and South Africa sites of MAL-ED, a longitudinal birth cohort study. We estimated the associations between Shigella burden and inflammation with linear growth at 2, 5, and 6-8 years of age, and with the cognitive test scores using linear regression and adjusting for potential confounding variables. We also assessed whether inflammation mediated the associations between Shigella and school-aged outcomes using a regression-based approach to mediation analysis. A high prevalence of Shigella was associated with a 0.32 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.56) z-score lower height-for-age z-score (HAZ) at 6-8 years compared to a low prevalence of Shigella. Intestinal inflammation had a smaller association with HAZ at 6-8 years. Shigella burden had small and consistently negative associations with cognitive outcomes in Brazil and Tanzania, but not South Africa, and the estimates were not statistically significant. Systemic inflammation was strongly associated with lower verbal fluency scores in Brazil (semantic fluency z-score difference: -0.57, 95% CI: -1.05, -0.10; phonemic fluency z-score difference: -0.48, 95% CI: -0.93, -0.03). There was no evidence that intestinal inflammation mediated the association between Shigella and HAZ or cognitive outcomes.Conclusions/significanceWhile Shigella infections were consistently associated with long-term deficits in linear growth, the estimates of the negative associations between Shigella and cognitive outcomes were imprecise and only observed in the Brazil and Tanzania sites. Systemic inflammation was strongly associated with lower semantic and phonemic fluency scores in Brazil only, highlighting the site-specificity of effects.

Dataset Information

The reversing association between advanced maternal age and child cognitive ability: evidence from three UK birth cohorts.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

The reversing association between advanced maternal age and child cognitive ability: evidence from three UK birth cohorts.

Similar Datasets

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