Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events is associated with lower achievement in literacy and numeracy at age 10 years, with sex differences in this link. STUDY DESIGN: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study recruited 2900 women at 18 weeks' pregnancy, and 2868 children were followed up at birth and postnatally. At age 10 years, information on 1038 children was linked to their literacy and numeracy test scores. Multivariate regression models were used to test the foregoing hypotheses, adjusting for important confounders. RESULTS: In girls, maternal antenatal exposure to 4 or more maternal life stress events or death of the mother's friend and/or relative was associated with lower reading scores. In contrast, exposure to 3 or more life stress events or to a pregnancy or financial problem was associated with higher reading scores in boys. Furthermore, maternal exposure to 4 or more life stress events was associated with higher mathematic scores and a residential move was linked to higher writing scores in boys. CONCLUSION: Maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events has differing effects on the school performance of male and female offspring. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for this sex difference.

Cognitive functioning in children with early onset type 1 diabetes and severe hypoglycemia.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether severe hypoglycemia in young children with early-onset type 1 diabetes (T1DM) is associated with subsequent abnormalities in cognitive status. STUDY DESIGN: Recruitment was from a large population-based database of children and adolescents with T1DM. Children and adolescents with early-onset T1DM (<6 years) were eligible for the study. Diabetic individuals (n = 41) with a prospectively documented history of seizure or coma were compared with peers with no history of severe hypoglycemic events (n = 43). A comprehensive test battery of learning and memory was used together with intellectual and behavioral measures. RESULTS: No significant group differences were revealed on the intellectual, memory, or behavioral measures. Similarly, those participants with a history of early first seizure did not differ from their peers with no seizures. There were no significant group differences on the memory subtests that were examined given their potential sensitivity to compromised hippocampal function. CONCLUSIONS: There was no clear evidence from this cohort that episodes of seizure or coma, even those occurring in very early childhood, resulted in broad cognitive dysfunction, nor was there evidence of specific memory difficulties at the time of testing in children and adolescents with early-onset T1DM.