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Prenatal cold duration and childhood cognitive performance: Evidence from a multifaceted assessment of temperature
Haoran Du1, Xibin Feng1, He Liu1
1Department of Pediatrics, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, No. 36 Sanhao Street, Heping District, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110004, China.
Environmental Research
|July 8, 2026
Summary
Prenatal cold exposure, specifically prolonged cold duration, is linked to lower school-age math scores. Protecting mothers from cold during late pregnancy may be crucial for cognitive development.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Developmental Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Prenatal environmental factors significantly influence cognitive development.
- The specific effects of temperature anomalies during pregnancy are not well understood.
- Understanding these impacts is crucial for child cognitive outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between prenatal temperature exposure (frequency, variability, intensity) and school-age cognitive performance.
- To identify sensitive developmental windows during pregnancy.
- To assess the prenatal specificity of temperature's impact on cognition.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a quasi-experimental framework with a nationally representative sample (n=2,219) from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).
- Employed high-dimensional fixed-effects (HDFE) models to analyze within-region temporal variations in temperature anomalies.
- Examined frequency, variability, and intensity of prenatal temperature exposure, including pregnancy-window and postnatal comparisons.
Main Results:
- Increased prenatal cold duration was significantly associated with lower mathematics scores (a 1-SD increase in cold duration linked to a 0.053 SD decrease in math scores).
- No significant association was found between cold duration and word-recognition scores.
- Late pregnancy emerged as a potentially sensitive developmental window for this association.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal cold duration is a potential environmental factor contributing to reduced mathematics performance in school-aged children.
- Late pregnancy appears to be a critical period for thermal influences on cognitive development.
- Maternal thermal protection during cold spells is a vital public health consideration for optimizing child cognitive outcomes.
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