Measured intelligence in offspring of oral and nonoral contraceptive users.
A study has been made of measures of intelligence of 210 children (5 to 8 years of age) born to mothers who used oral and nonoral contraceptives pregestationally. Ninety-six of these children were born to mothers who used oral contraceptives, and one hundred and fourteen were born to mothers who used vaginal contraceptive methods. The intelligence of the children was measured in the form of the full-scale I.Q. score by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) adapted and normalized for Puerto Rico by the Puerto Rico Department of Education. A three-factor analysis of variance was performed on the data collected for comparison of the two groups. It was observed that there was no significant difference between the average I.Q. scores of children born to mothers using oral contraceptives and those born to the mothers using nonoral contraceptives. The average I.Q. in children of the oral contraceptive group was 85.04 and that in children of the nonoral contraceptive group was 85.54. Distributions for both groups were also found to be similar. No significant differences between means were observed for sex, age, and interacitons with the exception of the age and sex interaction, where, again, no specific, meaningful trend could be established. The average I.Q. in the sample fell very close to the center of the "normal" range of the WISC, Puerto Rican adaptation. The results of the study do not offer any evidence as to the effect of the use of oral contraceptives on the intelligence measure (by the WISC) of the offspring born to mothers using them pregestationally. The children under study, on an average, are of "normal" intelligence as measured by the Puerto Rican intelligence standards.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003271:Contraceptive Agents, Female / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003274:Contraceptive Devices, Female; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D011247:Pregnancy; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012737:Sex Factors; D014888:Wechsler Scales
D003271:Contraceptive Agents, Female; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral