Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2025
Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Age-Specific Probability of 4 Major Health Outcomes in Children with Spina Bifida
Kendra E Gilbertson1,2, Tiebin Liu2, John S Wiener3
1Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN.
Insights
This study shows how the likelihood of bladder/bowel incontinence decreases with age in spina bifida (SB) patients. Conversely, skin breakdown and lack of ambulation risks increase with age for individuals with SB.
Area of Science:
- Medical research
- Public health
- Pediatric medicine
Background:
- Spina bifida (SB) is a complex congenital condition impacting multiple body systems.
- Understanding the age-specific progression of common health outcomes is crucial for patient management.
- Existing data may not fully capture the longitudinal changes in health status across different SB subtypes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate the age-specific probability of four key health outcomes in a large spina bifida registry.
- To analyze the association between age and health outcomes in individuals with myelomeningocele (MMC) and non-myelomeningocele (NMMC).
- To provide data that can aid clinicians in patient counseling and care planning.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry (n=7069).
- Categorized participants into 16 age groups (5-19 years, and 20+ years).
- Employed generalized linear models to calculate adjusted probabilities and 95% prediction intervals for each outcome, controlling for sex and race/ethnicity.
Main Results:
- Age was inversely associated with bladder incontinence (MMC: -0.933, NMMC: -0.657) and bowel incontinence (MMC: -0.922, NMMC: -0.773).
- Age was directly associated with skin breakdown (MMC: 0.942, NMMC: 0.382) and lack of ambulation (MMC: 0.809, NMMC: 0.619).
- Significant correlations were observed across both MMC and NMMC groups.
Conclusions:
- Age demonstrates an inverse relationship with incontinence and a direct relationship with skin breakdown and ambulation challenges in spina bifida.
- These age-specific probabilities can inform clinical expectations and patient/family discussions regarding SB outcomes.
- The findings support tailored management strategies based on patient age and SB subtype.
Objective:
This study aimed to estimate the age-specific probability of 4 health outcomes in a large registry of individuals with spina bifida (SB).
Methods:
The association between age and 4 health outcomes was examined in individuals with myelomeningocele (MMC, n = 5627) and non-myelomeningocele (NMMC, n = 1442) from the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry. Sixteen age categories were created, 1 for each year between the ages of 5 and 19 years and 1 for those aged 20 years or older. Generalized linear models were used to calculate the adjusted probability and 95% prediction intervals of each outcome for each age category, adjusting for sex and race/ethnicity.
Results:
For the MMC and NMMC groups, the adjusted coefficients for the correlation between age and the probability of each outcome were -0.933 and -0.657 for bladder incontinence, -0.922 and -0.773 for bowel incontinence, 0.942 and 0.382 for skin breakdown, and 0.809 and 0.619 for lack of ambulation, respectively.
Conclusion:
In individuals with SB, age is inversely associated with the probability of bladder and bowel incontinence and directly associated with the probability of skin breakdown and lack of ambulation. The estimated age-specific probabilities of each outcome can help SB clinicians estimate the expected proportion of patients with the outcome at specific ages and explain the probability of the occurrence of these outcomes to patients and their families.
Related Concept Videos
01:49Probability Laws
01:30Neurulation
01:17z Scores and Area Under the Curve
02:57Meiosis vs. Mitosis
Before the start of mitosis and meiosis I, the cell synthesizes DNA, resulting in two homologous copies of each chromosome. DNA synthesis is...
01:11Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be distributed normally. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. The sample size needed to be higher than 30, and most importantly, the population standard deviation should be already known.
In most realistic situations, the population standard deviation is often unknown, but in rare circumstances, when it...
01:07Teratogenicity