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Maternal medical conditions during pregnancy and gross motor development up to age 24 months in the Upstate KIDS
Akhgar Ghassabian1, Rajeshwari Sundaram2, Amanda Wylie1
1Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Aim:
We examined whether children of mothers with a medical condition diagnosed before or during pregnancy took longer to achieve gross motor milestones up to age 24 months.
Method:
We obtained information on medical conditions using self-reports, birth certificates, and hospital records in 4909 mothers participating in Upstate KIDS, a population-based birth cohort. Mothers reported on their children's motor milestone achievement at 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months of age.
Results:
After adjustment for covariates (including pre-pregnancy body mass index), children of mothers with gestational diabetes took longer to achieve sitting without support (hazard ratio [HR]=0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.75-0.93), walking with assistance (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.77-0.98), and walking alone (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.77-0.99) than children of females with no gestational diabetes. Similar findings emerged for maternal diabetes. Gestational hypertension was associated with a longer time to achieve walking with assistance. These associations did not change after adjustment for gestational age or birthweight. Severe hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were related to a longer time to achieve milestones, but not after adjustment for perinatal factors.
Interpretation:
Children exposed to maternal diabetes, gestational or pre-gestational, may take longer to achieve motor milestones than non-exposed children, independent of maternal obesity.