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

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.

Epigenetics: Embedded bodies and the molecularisation of biography and milieu

“…Although at the level of concepts, the researchers in the McGill lab would probably go some way along with this interpretation of genomes in context, their everyday research practice certainly looks very different. Consider one ongoing project in the lab: the lab collaborates with British epidemiologists in charge of the 1958 cohort (for example, Jefferis et al, 2002), a large cohort of children born in 1958 in Britain. Socio-economic data exist from birth to age 40 and blood samples exist at age 40.…”

Dopamine Receptor D2 GeneTaq1A(C32806T) Polymorphism Modifies the Relationship Between Birth Weight and Educational Attainment in Adulthood: 21-Year Follow-up of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

“…3,[9][10][11] At first glance, this might suggest a role of biological factors in favor of environmental factors in this association. Gender-related difference, however, may challenge this interpretation and suggests that part of the association between low birth weight and educational level is attributable to adverse early circumstances.…”

“…[1][2][3][4] However, previous studies of general populations suggested that birth weight is associated with cognition and educational attainment across the full birth weight range. 3 The association between low birth weight or small for gestational age and cognitive achievement has been found to be independent of social background, 3,9,10 although some studies suggest that a contribution of birth weight in cognitive achievement including school and educational achievement is confounded by other factors such as socioeconomic status 11 or childhood home and learning environment. 10 In addition, there are inconsistencies that compromise the evidence on an association between low birth weight and educational achievement.…”

The generational transmission of socioeconomic inequalities in child cognitive development and emotional health

“…Children born to generally lower SES and teenage mothers appear to be at increased risk for impaired of lower IQ scores (Kenny, 1995) and poorer linguistic outcomes (Spieker & Bensley, 1994). Data from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study (Jefferis, Power, & Hertzman, 2002) indicates that class inequalities in cognitive ability increase over the life course. Turley (1999) suggests that maternal age at first birth is significantly associated with cognitive test scores of firstborn children as well as those from subsequent births, however conflicting evidence has been provided by Geronimus, Korenman, and Hillemeier (1994).…”