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Cognitive limitations at nine months of age: The role of cumulative sociodemographic risk and adverse birth outcomes among infants living in the United States
Methods. Data are from 8,950 infants and their parents participating in the first wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, a nationally representative cohort of infants born in 2001. CLs were defined by the lowest 10% of mental scale scores from the Bayley Short Form-Research Edition. Five sociodemographic risk factors were combined to create a risk index. Staged multivariable logistic regression investigated whether obstetric factors (obstetric health and adverse birth outcomes) mediated the impact of sociodemographic risk on the odds of CL.
Results. The percentage of infants with CLs increased with the number of sociodemographic risks (5.4% among infants living with no sociodemographic risk and nearly 12% among infants with four or more risks). Having any sociodemographic risk increased the odds of CL by 38% (OR 1.38; 95% CI: 1.11-1.72), which each sociodemographic risk factor increased the odds of CLs by 20% (OR 1.20; 95% CI: 1.10-1.30). Accounting for adverse birth outcomes attenuated this relationship.
Conclusions. Cumulative exposure to sociodemographic risk is a critical contributor to CLs in infancy. Importantly, adverse birth outcomes mediate the relationship between cumulative exposure to sociodemographic risk and CLs. From a lifecourse perspective, reducing the prevalence of CLs in infancy may require reducing sociodemographic disparities in adverse birth outcomes.
Learning Areas:
EpidemiologySocial and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the relationships between sociodemographic risk factors and cognitive limitations in infancy.
Discuss clinical and public health implications of our findings.
Keyword(s): Disability, Maternal and Child Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Specific tasks under my current research positions include assistance with original data compilation and analysis, literature reviews, and manuscript formation. I have co-authored several abstracts for professional conferences and manuscripts that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.