Lifestyle during pregnancy: neurodevelopmental effects at 5 years of age. The design and implementation of a prospective follow-up study.
BACKGROUND
It has been suggested that even mild exposure to alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and poor diet may have adverse long-term neurodevelopmental effects. In addition, there is evidence that timing of high exposures (e.g. binge drinking) can have particularly negative effects. This paper describes the design and implementation of The Lifestyle During Pregnancy Study addressing major methodological challenges for studies in this field. The study examines the effects of lifestyle during pregnancy on offspring neurodevelopment.


METHODS
In 2003, we initiated a prospective follow-up of 1750 mother-child pairs, sampled on the basis of maternal alcohol drinking patterns from The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), a study of 101,042 pregnancies enrolled 1997-2003. Data collection in the DNBC involved four prenatal and postnatal maternal interviews, providing detailed information on maternal alcohol drinking patterns before and during pregnancy, caffeine intake, smoking, diet, and other lifestyle, medical, and sociodemographic factors.


RESULTS
At the age of 5 years, the children and their mothers participated in a comprehensive assessment of neurobehavioural development focusing on global cognition, specific cognitive functions, and behaviour. Two new tests assessing attention and speed of information processing among children were developed, and data on important potential confounders such as maternal intelligence quotient, vision, and hearing abilities were collected. Efforts were made to standardise procedures and obtain high inter-rater reliability.


CONCLUSIONS
We expect that the study will illuminate the significance or lack of significance of maternal lifestyle during pregnancy and contribute to better understanding the effects of alcohol drinking during pregnancy at low to moderate consumption levels.
Kesmodel
Ulrik Schiøler
US
School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Aarhus, Denmark. ukes@soci.au.dk
Underbjerg
Mette
M
Kilburn
Tina Røndrup
TR
Bakketeig
Leiv
L
Mortensen
Erik Lykke
EL
Landrø
Nils Inge
NI
Schendel
Diana
D
Bertrand
Jacquelyn
J
Grove
Jakob
J
Ebrahim
Shahul
S
Thorsen
Poul
P
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008019:Life Style; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires