Season of birth is associated with anthropometric and neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood in a general population birth cohort

Abstract

The dseason of birthT effect is one of the most consistently replicated associations in schizophrenia epidemiology. In contrast, the association between season of birth and development in the general population is relatively poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of season of birth on various anthropometric and neurocognitive variables from birth to age seven in a large, community-based birth cohort. A sample of white singleton infants born after 37 weeks gestation (n = 22,123) was drawn from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project. Anthropometric variables (weight, head circumference, length/height) and various measures of neurocognitive development, were assessed at birth, 8 months, 4 and 7 years of age. Compared to summer/autumn born infants, winter/spring born infants were significantly longer at birth, and at age seven were significantly heavier, taller and had larger head circumference. Winter/spring born infants were achieving significantly higher scores on the Bayley Motor Score at 8 months, the Graham-Ernhart Block Test at age 4, the Wechsler Intelligence Performance and Full Scale scores at age 7, but had significantly lower scores on the Bender-Gestalt Test at age 7 years. Winter/spring birth, while associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, is generally associated with superior outcomes with respect to physical and cognitive development. D

Brighter children? The association between seasonality of birth and child IQ in a population-based birth cohort

“…Consistently a winter–spring excess of births in cases of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder as well as major depression and autism have been described 1. Season of birth showed a similar association with cognition 2. The recurring question is: What hides behind the season of birth?…”

“…1 Season of birth showed a similar association with cognition. 2 The recurring question is: What hides behind the season of birth? Many different explanations for this relationship have been put forward but studies remain inconclusive.…”

The influence of season of birth on the pattern of lip prints in Nigeria

“…This also gives support for the current finding which shows that season of birth as one of the environmental factors has no effect on the pattern of lip prints. Although, pervious studies revealed the influence of season of birth on other parameters such as birth weight (McGrath et al, 2005), stature (Waldie et al, 2000;McGrath et al, 2006), body-mass index (Phillips and Young, 2000) among others but there is no statistically significant association of season of birth with all compartments of lip prints in both upper and lower lips…”

Season of birth influences the timing of first menstruation

“…Researchers emphasize primarily seasonal variations in insolation, and thus in the amount of vitamin D (Krenz-Niedbała et al, 2011;McGarth et al, 2006), but also dietary differences resulting from the availability of specific foodstuffs (Doblhammer and Vaupel, 2001). Other factors affecting development which display variation depending on the season include exposure to viruses and bacteria, air temperature (Murray et al, 2000), environmental pollution, and photoperiod-dependent melatonin production that inhibits growth hormone secretion (Waldie et al, 2000;Weber et al, 1998).…”