title: Associations between birth weight, preeclampsia and cognitive functions in middle-aged adults.
abstract: Both reductions in birth weight and preeclampsia (PE) have been associated with decrements in scores on tests of intelligence in children and adolescents. We examined whether these decrements persist into middle adulthood and expand into other domains of cognitive functioning. Using data from the Early Determinants of Adult Health project and from the ancillary project, Fetal Antecedents of Major Depression and Cardiovascular Disease, we selected term same-sex sibling sets or singletons from these sets, from the New England Family Study (NEFS) and the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), discordant on either fetal growth or PE, to test the hypotheses that prenatal exposure to inflammation was associated with decrements in attention, learning and executive function 40 years later. Exposure was defined as a continuous measure of percentile birth weight for gestational age, reduced fetal growth (<20th percentile of birth weight for gestational age) or maternal PE. Given that the sample was comprised, in part, of sibling sets, the analyses were performed using mixed models to account for the inter-sibling correlations. Analyses were performed separately by study site (i.e. NEFS and CHDS). We found few statistically significant associations (suggesting a possible type II error) consistent with previous literature, suggesting that the associations with low birth weight do not persist into midlife. We discuss the possible reasons for the lack of associations, which include the possible mediating effects of the postnatal environment.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Factor-Litvak
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Straka
authors.affiliation: 2Brigham & Women's Hospital Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Division of Women's Health, Connors Center for Women's Health & Gender Biology, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cherkerzian
authors.affiliation: 4Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging, London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: 6Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 7ICSD.USA, Millburn NJ, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sher
authors.affiliation: 8Sergievsky Center, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Neils
authors.affiliation: 2Brigham & Women's Hospital Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Division of Women's Health, Connors Center for Women's Health & Gender Biology, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goldstein