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Maternal infections during pregnancy and child cognitive outcomes

Janell Kwok1, Hildigunnur Anna Hall2, Aja Louise Murray2

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, EH8 9JZ, Edinburgh, UK. jkwok@ed.ac.uk.

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
|November 18, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Maternal infections during the third trimester of pregnancy were linked to lower cognitive scores in children. These effects on verbal and performance IQ became more apparent as children aged.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Maternal prenatal infections are associated with child neurodevelopment.
  • The impact of infections during specific gestational periods on cognitive outcomes is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate associations between maternal infections in each trimester of pregnancy and children's developmental and intelligence quotients.
  • Utilizing the ALSPAC birth cohort to examine these relationships.

Main Methods:

  • Included infection data from mothers and cognition data from 7,410 children.
  • Employed regression analysis to assess links between trimester-specific maternal infections and child cognition at ages 18 months, 4 years, and 8 years.

Main Results:

  • Third-trimester infections correlated with decreased verbal IQ at age 4.
  • Significant associations were found with decreased verbal IQ, performance IQ, and total IQ at age 8.

Conclusions:

  • Maternal third-trimester infections may have a delayed impact on cognitive development, particularly evident with increasing cognitive load.
  • Performance IQ appears more susceptible to trimester-specific maternal infection exposure than verbal IQ.
Abstract

Keywords:
ALSPACChild developmentCognitionInfectionsPregnancy

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