Published online August 1, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 122 No. 2 August 2008, pp. e350-e358 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3851)
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ARTICLE

Birth Weight and Cognitive Ability in Childhood Among Siblings and Nonsiblings

Seungmi Yang, PhDa, John Lynch, PhDa, Ezra S. Susser, MD, DrPHb,c and Debbie A. Lawlor, PhDd

a Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
b Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
c New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York
d Medical Research Council Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, England

OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this work was to examine whether the positive association between birth weight and childhood cognitive ability is seen within siblings from the same family, as well as between nonsiblings, and to determine whether these associations vary with age.

METHODS. We compared the association of birth weight with cognitive ability measured at ages 5 to 6, 7 to 9, and 11 to 12 years among a total of 5402 children from different families with that among 2236 to 3083 sibships from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979-Children.

RESULTS. In the whole cohort, there were positive associations between birth weight and cognitive ability at all ages, with the association increasing with age from a 0.81-point increase at ages 5 to 6 years to 1.30 and 1.44 points at ages 7 to 9 and 11 to 12 years, respectively, per 1 SD of gestational age- and gender-adjusted birth weight z score. With adjustment for covariates, there was marked attenuation of these associations. Mean differences were 0.28 points in children aged 5 to 6 years, 0.67 points in those aged 7 to 9 years, and 0.52 points in those aged 11 to 12 years after adjusting for child's gender, race or ethnicity, year of birth, and age at test; maternal age, height, parity, education, smoking during pregnancy, and cognitive ability; and household income. Our family-based analyses that separated within- and between-family effects found that the between-family associations were much stronger than the within-family associations. However, adjustment for potential confounders attenuated the between-family associations, and there was no evidence for a difference in association comparing the between- and within-family associations.

CONCLUSIONS. In these data, the positive association between birth weight and childhood cognitive ability at ages 5 to 12 years is explained largely by family characteristics rather than a specific intrauterine effect.

Key Words: birth weight • cognitive function • family environment • siblings

Abbreviations: SEP—socioeconomic position • NLSY79-C—National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Children • PIAT—Peabody Individual Achievement Test • CI—confidence interval

Accepted Mar 14, 2008.


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