Birth weight, childhood socioeconomic environment, and cognitive development in the 1958 British birth cohort study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the combined effect of social class and weight at birth on cognitive trajectories during school age and the associations between birth weight and educational outcomes through to 33 years.


METHODS
Longitudinal, population based, birth cohort study.


METHODS
10 845 males and females born during 3-9 March 1958 with information on birth weight, social class, and cognitive tests.


METHODS
Reading, maths, draw a man, copying designs, verbal and non-verbal ability tests at ages 7, 11, and 16, highest qualifications achieved by 33, and trajectories of maths standardised scores at 7-16 years.


RESULTS
The outcome of all childhood cognitive tests and educational achievements improved significantly with increasing birth weight. Analysis of maths scores at 7 and of highest qualifications achieved by 33 showed that the relations were robust to adjustment for potential confounding factors. For each kilogram increase in birth weight, maths z score increased by 0.17 (adjusted estimate 0.15, 95% confidence interval 0.10 to 0.21) for males and 0.21 (0.20, 0.14 to 0.25) for females. Trajectories of maths z scores between 7 and 16 years diverged for different social class groups: participants from classes I and II increased their relative position on the score with increasing age, whereas classes IV and V showed a relative decline with increasing age. Birth weight explained much less of the variation in cognition than did social class (range 0.5-1.5% v 2.9-12.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
The postnatal environment has an overwhelming influence on cognitive function through to early adulthood, but these strong effects do not explain the weaker but independent association with birth weight.
Jefferis
Barbara J M H
BJ
Institute of Child Health, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, London WC1N 1EH.
Power
Chris
C
Hertzman
Clyde
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007360:Intelligence; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D012923:Social Class; D012931:Social Environment; D006113:United Kingdom