Fetal growth and subsequent mental health problems in children aged 4 to 13 years

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that children with suboptimal fetal growth have significantly poorer mental health outcomes than those with optimal growth, a population random sample survey of children aged 4 to 16 years in Western Australia in 1993 was conducted. The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach 1991a) and the Teacher Report Form (Achenbach 1991b) were used to define mental health morbidity. Survey data for 1775 children aged 4 to 13 years were available for linkage with original birth information. The percentage of expected birth weight (PEBW) was used as the measure of fetal growth. Children below the 2nd centile of PEBW who had achieved only 57% to 72% of their expected birthweight given their gestation at delivery were at significant risk of a mental health morbidity (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.18, 7.12). In addition, they were more likely to be rated as academically impaired (OR 6.0, 95% CI 2.25, 16.06) and to have poor general health (OR 5.1, 95% CI 1.69, 15.52).

Functional outcome of very preterm–born and small-for-gestational-age children at school age

“…An earlier study had reported more behavioral problems in very preterm SGA children (17), whereas other studies failed to confirm these findings (6,18). As regards ADHD, we found no significant difference between the SGA children and the con trols.…”

Balance and Coordination Proficiency of Age-Matched Male and Female Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities

“…Higher prevalence of moderate ID among male children has been reported, with males 1.6-1.9 times more likely to be classified with moderate ID than females (Croen, Grether, & Selvin, 2001;Drews, Yeargin-Allsopp, Decoufle, & Murphy, 1995;Richardson, Katz, & Koller, 1986), and these sex differences seem to increase with age up to 15 years (Wen, 1997). Factors that could play a role in sex differences for ID are X-linked conditions (Chelly & Mandel, 2001;Partington, Mowat, Einfeld, Tonge, & Turner, 2000;Tariverdian & Vogel, 2000), low birth weight and an association between low birth weight and low IQ in males (Matte, Bresnahan, Begg, & Susser, 2001;Zubrick et al, 2000), and maternal smoking, which has a proportionaly higher detrimental effect on males than females (Zaren, Lindmark, & Bakketeig, 2000).…”

The long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants born full-term with low birth weight

“…Studies have shown that, in babies born with SGA, there are mild neurological, behavioral, emotional problems at various levels, and their cognitive scores and academic successes are lower when compared to children born with a normal birth weight according to gestational age. When the literature was analyzed, low birth weight was found to be related to problems such as attention deficit, ADHD, anxiety-depression, aggression, and disorders of mental state involving symptoms of both introversion and extroversion [20][21][22][23][24] .…”

“…In another study, 10 th age academic success was lower in SGA cases, but there was no significant difference between them in terms of WISC-R results 22 . Zubrick SR et al 20 stated that a wider range of mental health problems was present (anxiety, depression, ADHD, and conduct disorder) in cases with low birth weights. In our study, similar to the literature 5,22,24,32 , the school success was found to be lower in the cases with SGA when compared to the control group (47.8% vs. 9.3%), and they were diagnosed with ADHD more frequently.…”