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4 Severity of Retinopathy of Prematurity and Motor Skills Development in Preschoolers
- Emma Gimenez DeGeorge, Christina Dandar, Allyssa Mattes, Andrew Heitzer, Jamie Piercy, Brittany Paul, Christina Lee, Judith Klarr, Sarah Raz
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 614-615
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Objective:
Children born preterm are at increased risk of deviation from the typical developmental trajectory. The probability of adverse developmental sequelae is increased in those with history of major perinatal complications. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a pathological disordered growth of retinal blood vessels occurring in very preterm neonates who require supplemental oxygen. ROP has been linked to intermittent hypoxemic events and blood gas derangements occurring in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), particularly in ventilated infants. Though presence and severity of ROP have been linked to neurodevelopmental impairment, little is known about the relationship between ROP severity and motor development in the preschool age. Because the same hypoxemic events and blood gas changes that lead to severe ROP may also lead to greater developmental deficits in motor control, we hypothesized that ROP severity will be inversely linked to the quality of motor functioning even in NICU graduates without neurological impairments.
Participants and Methods:We included 95 preterm (23.6 - 33.6 weeks gestation) preschoolers (49 females, 44 members of twin pairs or triplets). The participants' age ranged from 3.3 - 4.1 years (adjusted for prematurity). ROP screening was conducted during NICU stay and rated from immature retina (0) to grade 4. Motor abilities were assessed with the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS-2). Cases with diagnosed perinatal brain pathology (moderate to severe) or cerebral palsy were excluded from analyses.
Results:We used linear mixed regression analyses with multiple gestation as a random factor. Severity of ROP was our predictor of interest, whereas socioeconomic status, sex, gestational age, and birth-weight SD served as covariates. Separate analyses were conducted using the PDMS-2 Total Motor, Fine Motor, and Gross Motor Quotients as dependent variables. ROP severity explained a unique portion of the variance in the Total Motor Quotient (F[1, 89] = 5.59, p = .02). Examination of the relationship between ROP severity and motor skill domains yielded a significant association for the Fine Motor Quotient (F[1, 89] = 6.19, p = .015) and a trend for the Gross Motor Quotient (F[1, 89] = 3.64, p = .06).
Conclusions:The results of this study reveal that increase in ROP severity is linked to poorer motor skills in preterm-born preschoolers without major disabilities or perinatal diagnosis of moderate to severe brain pathology. This association was evident for both fine and gross motor skills, though only the relationship between ROP severity and the former motor index reached conventional statistical significance. Importantly, ROP severity accounted for a unique portion of the variance in motor performance, over and above the variance explained by other perinatal risk factors. This result is consistent with previous research findings indicating that ROP is linked to the occurrence of multiple, subtle hypoxemic events and 'exposure' to blood gas derangements during NICU stay in very preterm neonates who require respiratory support.
Perinatal and early-life factors associated with stable and unstable trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood
- Vincent Bégin, Nathalie M.G. Fontaine, Frank Vitaro, Michel Boivin, Richard E. Tremblay, Sylvana M. Côté
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 53 / Issue 2 / January 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 May 2021, pp. 379-387
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Background
This study aimed to identify perinatal and early-life factors associated with trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood.
MethodsParticipants were 1631 children (51.5% girls) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. A wide range of perinatal and early-life factors were assessed from pregnancy to age 2.5 years using medical files and mothers’ reports. Psychopathic traits were assessed via teachers’ reports at ages 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12 years. Latent class growth analyses and multinomial logistic regressions controlling for child sex were conducted. Two-way interaction effects between perinatal/early-life factors and child sex were explored.
ResultsFour trajectories of psychopathic traits were identified: High-stable (4.48%), Increasing (8.77%), Decreasing (11.46%), and Low-stable (75.29%). A few perinatal factors and most child-level and family-level early-life factors significantly increased the odds of following the High-stable v. the Low-stable trajectory. Higher levels of psychotropic exposures during pregnancy, socioeconomic adversity, child's physical aggression, child's opposition, mother's depressive symptoms, and hostile parenting increased the likelihood of following the Increasing instead of the Low-stable trajectory. Higher socioeconomic adversity, mother's depressive symptoms, and inconsistent parenting were associated with membership to the High-stable instead of the Decreasing trajectory. Most associations were not moderated by child sex.
ConclusionsThese results shed light on the perinatal and early-life factors that are associated with specific pathways of psychopathic traits during childhood and suggest that different factors could be targeted to prevent the exacerbation (v. low and stable levels) or the stability at high levels (v. attenuation) of these traits.
Measures of birth size in relation to risk of prostate cancer: the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, Sweden
- P. H. Lahmann, P. Wallström, L. Lissner, H. Olsson, B. Gullberg
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- Journal:
- Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease / Volume 3 / Issue 6 / December 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 June 2012, pp. 442-449
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There is some evidence that perinatal factors, specifically birth weight (BW), may be related to the onset of prostate cancer (PRCA). This case–control study, nested within the Malmö Diet and Cancer Cohort Study, used archived birth record data from 308 incident PRCA cases diagnosed between 1991 and 2005, and 637 age-matched controls among 4781 men born (1923–1945) in Malmö and Lund, Sweden. We applied conditional logistic regression to examine the birth size–PRCA association, including tumour subtypes, adjusting for perinatal and adult factors. Compared with controls, cases had a non-significantly higher mean BW and were more likely to have high (>4000 g) BW (21% v. 18%), but did not differ in other birth size measures, nor in mean adult body mass index . We observed a non-linear association between BW and PRCA risk. Compared with BWs between 3000 and 3500 g (reference), the fully adjusted odds ratios (OR, 95% CI) were 0.55 (0.33–0.91) for <3000 g, 0.86 (0.61–1.22) for 3500–4000 g and 0.98 (0.64–1.50) for >4000 g. Among men with aggressive tumours, the reduction in risk for those with BWs <3000 g (OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.09–0.72) was stronger than the rate of risk for PRCA overall. Crude risk estimates were minimally attenuated when adjusted for gestational age, maternal age, birth order and adult factors. Birth length, head circumference and placental weight were not associated with prostate cancer. Our results indicate a protective effect of lower BW on risk of total and aggressive prostate cancer, rather than any direct effect of larger birth size.