Cozzani, M;
Aradhya, S;
Goisis, A;
(2021)
The cognitive development from childhood to adolescence of low birth weight children born after medical assisted reproduction – a UK longitudinal cohort study.
International Journal of Epidemiology
, Article dyab009. 10.1093/ije/dyab009.
(In press).
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Abstract
Background: Previous research has documented that children conceived through medically assisted reproduction (MAR) are at increased risk of poor birth outcomes, such as low birthweight (LBW), which are risk factors for stunted longer-term cognitive development. However, parents who undergo MAR to conceive have, on average, advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds which could compensate for the negative effects of being born LBW. Previous studies have not analysed whether the negative effects of LBW are attenuated among MAR conceived children. Methods: We draw on the UK Millennium Cohort Study (sweeps 1–6) which contains a sub-sample of (N = 396) MAR-conceived children. The dependent variable measures cognitive ability at around ages 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14. We examine the cognitive development of four groups of children: MAR-conceived low birthweight (MAR LBW); MAR-conceived non-low birthweight (MAR NLBW); naturally conceived low birthweight (NC LBW); naturally conceived non-low birthweight (NC NLBW). We estimate the two following linear regression models for each sweep: (i) a baseline model to examine the unadjusted association between cognitive development and low birthweight by mode of conception; and (ii) a model adjusted by socio-demographic family characteristics. Results: In baseline models, MAR LBW children [age 3: β = 0.021, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.198, 0.241; age 5: β = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.009, 0.418; age 7: β = 0.163, 95% CI: -0.148, 0.474; age 11: β = 0.003, 95% CI: -0.318, 0.325; age 14: β = 0.156, 95% CI: -0.205, 0.517], on average perform similarly in cognitive ability relative to NC NLBW at all ages, and display higher cognitive scores than NC LBW children until age 7. When we account for family characteristics, differences are largely attenuated and become close to zero at age 14. Conclusions: Despite the higher incidence of LBW among MAR compared with NC children, they do not seem to experience any disadvantage in their cognitive development compared with naturally conceived children. This finding is likely explained by the fact that, on average, MAR children are born to socioeconomically advantaged parents.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The cognitive development from childhood to adolescence of low birth weight children born after medical assisted reproduction – a UK longitudinal cohort study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ije/dyab009 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab009 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com Supplementary dat |
| Keywords: | Medically assisted reproduction, low birthweight, LBW, cognitive development, UK cohort study |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10118617 |
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