School-age children born to diabetic mothers and to mothers with gestational diabetes exhibit a high rate of inattention and fine and gross motor impairment.
OBJECTIVE
To study the neurobehavioral effects that pregestational and gestational diabetes might have on offspring at school age.


METHODS
We studied neurobehavioral function at school age of 57 children born to 48, well controlled, diabetic mothers and of 32 children born to 32 women with gestational diabetes. Their development was compared with 57 control children matched by age, birth order and parental socio-economic status, using a number of cognitive, behavioral, sensory and motor neurological tests.


RESULTS
The IQ scores on the WISC-R and Bender tests of the children born to diabetic mothers were similar to those of control children, but the Bender scores of the children born to mothers with gestational diabetes were slightly lower. No differences were found between the study groups in various sensory-motor functions in comparison to controls. However, both study group children performed less well than controls in fine and gross motor functions as observed on the Bruininks-Oseretzki test of motor proficiency. The scores of children born to the mothers with pregestational diabetes were higher than controls on the Touwen & Prechtl neurological examination (worse function). The children from both research groups also performed worse on the Pollack taper test that is designed to detect inattention and hyperactivity. The children of the two study groups also had slightly higher scores on the Conners abbreviated parents-teachers questionnaire measuring hyperactivity and inattention, but the differences from controls were not statistically significant. We found a negative correlation between the performance of the children born to mothers with pregestational diabetes on various neurodevelopmental and behavioral tests and the severity of maternal hyperglycemia as assessed by blood glycosylated hemoglobin levels and acetonuria.


CONCLUSIONS
Pregestational or gestational diabetes was found to adversely affect attention span and motor functions of offspring at school age, but not their cognitive ability. These effects were negatively correlated with the degree of maternal glycemic control, and were more pronounced in younger children.
Ornoy
A
A
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Ratzon
N
N
Greenbaum
C
C
Wolf
A
A
Dulitzky
M
M
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology; D001724:Birth Weight; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006948:Hyperkinesis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications; D011247:Pregnancy; D011254:Pregnancy in Diabetics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012677:Sensation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D001786:Blood Glucose