Research article summary (published 8 Aug 2002):

Birth weight, childhood socioeconomic environment, and cognitive development in the 1958 British birth cohort study.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVES: 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. DESIGN: Longitudinal, population based, birth cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: 10 845 males and females born during 3-9 March 1958 with information on birth weight, social class, and cognitive tests. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 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.

Author information

Author/s: Jefferis, Barbara J M H (BJ); Power, Chris (C); Hertzman, Clyde (C);

Affiliation: Institute of Child Health, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, London WC1N 1EH.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: BMJ (Clinical research ed.) (BMJ), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 325 (issue 7359) : pp 305

Dates: Created 2002/08/09; Completed 2002/08/30; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 12169505, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent Adult Birth Weight Child Cognition Cohort Studies Educational Status Female Great Britain

Humans Infant, Newborn Intelligence Linear Models Longitudinal Studies Male Mathematics Social Class Social Environment

Related articles

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

• Size at birth and growth trajectories to young adulthood. 29 Apr 2007
• Body size at birth and socio-economic status in childhood: implications for Cloninger's psychobiological model of temperament at age 60. 22 Jun 2008
• Effect of breastfeeding and sociodemographic factors on visual outcome in childhood and adolescence. 29 Apr 2008
• Impact of early postnatal weight gain and feeding patterns on body mass index in adolescence. 30 Dec 2007
• Associations of birth size, gestational age, and adult size with intellectual performance: evidence from a cohort of Norwegian men. 30 Oct 2007
• Revisiting the interaction between birth weight and current body size in the foetal origins of adult disease. 18 Jul 2007
• TCF7L2 rs7903146 variant does not associate with smallness for gestational age in the French population. 23 Jun 2007
• The influence of age at exposure to PBBs on birth outcomes. 5 May 2007
• Antiretroviral therapy and premature delivery in diagnosed HIV-infected women in the United Kingdom and Ireland. 9 May 2007
• Prevalence of maternal smoking and environmental tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy and impact on birth weight: retrospective study using Millennium Cohort. 14 May 2007

See 100+ related articles.

Related Article Map

Legend: - FREE Full text Article. - Abstract only. - Title only. More help.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.