Dataset Information

Does Socioeconomic Status Modify the Association Between Preterm Birth and Children's Early Cognitive Ability and Kindergarten Academic Achievement in the United States?

ABSTRACT: Being born preterm and being raised in poverty are each linked with adverse cognitive outcomes. Using data from 5,250 singletons born in the United States in 2001 and enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we examined whether household socioeconomic status (SES) modified the association between preterm birth (PTB) and children's scores on cognitive assessments at age 2 years and reading and mathematics assessments at kindergarten age. Gestational age was measured from birth certificates and categorized as early preterm, moderate preterm, late preterm, early term, and term. SES was measured at age 9 months using a composite of parental education, occupation, and income. PTB was associated with 0.1- to 0.6-standard deviation-deficits in 2-year cognitive ability and kindergarten mathematics scores and with 0.1- to 0.4-standard-deviation deficits in kindergarten reading scores. Children living in the lowest (versus highest) SES quintile scored 0.6 standard deviations lower on 2-year cognitive ability, 1.1 standard deviations lower on kindergarten reading, and 0.9 standard deviations lower on kindergarten mathematics. The association between PTB and cognitive outcomes did not differ by postnatal SES. However, children who were both born preterm and lived in lower-SES households had the poorest performance on all 3 outcomes and therefore may represent a uniquely high-risk group.

SUBMITTER: Beauregard JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6070120 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Does Socioeconomic Status Modify the Association Between Preterm Birth and Children's Early Cognitive Ability and Kindergarten Academic Achievement in the United States?

Beauregard Jennifer L JL Drews-Botsch Carolyn C Sales Jessica M JM Flanders W Dana WD Kramer Michael R MR

American journal of epidemiology 20180801 8

Being born preterm and being raised in poverty are each linked with adverse cognitive outcomes. Using data from 5,250 singletons born in the United States in 2001 and enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we examined whether household socioeconomic status (SES) modified the association between preterm birth (PTB) and children's scores on cognitive assessments at age 2 years and reading and mathematics assessments at kindergarten age. Gestational age was measured from ...[more]

PMID: 29757345

Similar Datasets

Project description:IntroductionPrevious research has observed relationships between higher prenatal exposure to air pollutants and neurodevelopmental and academic outcomes later in childhood. Identifying intermediate outcomes mediating this relationship would inform prevention and intervention efforts. We aimed to investigate if previously observed associations between prenatal exposure to common urban air pollutants, diesel and perchloroethylene, and performance on third grade standardized tests were mediated through increased risk of preterm birth.MethodsData from the 1994-1998 birth cohorts within the New York City Longitudinal Study of Early Development were included in this analysis. Exposure was determined by linking the mother's residence at the time of delivery to the U.S. EPA's 1996 National Air Toxic Assessment of estimated ambient concentrations of diesel and perchloroethylene. Children's third grade standardized math and language tests were used as the markers for academic achievement. Missing data on covariates were imputed, while participants with missing information on gestational age and test scores were excluded. Linear regression models and causal mediation analysis were used to examine potential mediation by preterm birth.ResultsIn total, 187,723 and 196,122 participants were included in language and math analyses, respectively. Children with exposure to the fourth quartile of diesel or perchloroethylene had approximately 0.03 (95%CI: 0.02, 0.04) lower math z-scores when compared to individuals with exposure in the first quartile, although there was no consistent decreasing trend in math z-scores over increasing quartiles of diesel or perchloroethylene. We did not find evidence of mediation by preterm birth or exposure-mediator interaction in our models.ConclusionWe did not find evidence that observed relationships between exposure to common urban air pollutants and test z-scores in childhood were mediated through an increased risk of preterm birth. This suggests other pathways between early exposure to air pollution and neurodevelopment should be investigated with causal mediation approaches.

Project description:Children's cognitive development and academic performance are linked to both fetal and early childhood factors, including preterm birth and family socioeconomic status. We evaluated whether the relationship between preterm birth (PTB) and first grade standardized test performance among Georgia public school students was modified by neighborhood deprivation in early childhood. The Georgia Birth to School cohort followed 327,698 children born in Georgia from 1998 to 2002 through to end-of-year first grade standardized tests. Binomial and log-binomial generalized estimating equations were used to estimate risk differences and risk ratios for the associations of both PTB and the Neighborhood Deprivation Index for the census tract in which each child's mother resided at the time of birth with test failure (versus passing). The presence of additive and multiplicative interaction was assessed. PTB was strongly associated with test failure, with increasing risk for earlier gestational ages. There was positive additive interaction between PTB and neighborhood deprivation. The main effect of PTB versus term birth increased risk of mathematics failure: 15.9% (95%CI: 13.3-18.5%) for early, 5.0% (95% CI: 4.1-5.9%) for moderate, and 1.3% (95%CI: 0.9-1.7%) for late preterm. Each 1 standard deviation increase in neighborhood deprivation was associated with 0.6% increased risk of mathematics failure. For children exposed to both PTB and higher neighborhood deprivation, test failure was 4.8%, 1.5%, and 0.8% greater than the sum of two main effects for early, moderate, and late PTB, respectively. Results were similar, but slightly attenuated, for reading and English/language arts. Our results suggest that PTB and neighborhood deprivation additively interact to produce greater risk among doubly exposed children than would be predicted from the sum of the effects of the two exposures. Understanding socioeconomic disparities in the effect of PTB on academic outcomes at school entry is important for targeting of early childhood interventions.

Dataset Information

Does Socioeconomic Status Modify the Association Between Preterm Birth and Children's Early Cognitive Ability and Kindergarten Academic Achievement in the United States?

Publications

Does Socioeconomic Status Modify the Association Between Preterm Birth and Children's Early Cognitive Ability and Kindergarten Academic Achievement in the United States?

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets