Are impaired childhood motor skills a risk factor for adolescent anxiety? Results from the 1958 U.K. birth cohort and the National Child Development Study.
OBJECTIVE
Neurodevelopmental impairments have been associated with early-onset schizophrenia, early-onset bipolar disorder, and childhood-onset affective disorder. The authors investigated whether delayed childhood motor skills predicted persistent anxiety in adolescence among 6,850 subjects from a national 1958 U.K. birth cohort.


METHODS
This historic cohort study used data from the National Child Development Study that was collected when its subjects were 7, 11, and 16 years old.


RESULTS
Boys with poor motor skills had more than threefold the odds of maternally rated anxiety at the ages of 11 and 16, but no effect was observed for girls.


CONCLUSIONS
Childhood motor impairment was strongly associated with persistent anxiety among male, but not among female, adolescents. The effect modification by sex was greater than expected, as was the effect size for boys. Both findings warrant replication and further examination.
Sigurdsson
Engilbert
E
Department of Psychiatry, Lanspitali-University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. engilbs@landspitali.is
Van Os
Jim
J
Fombonne
Eric
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology