Premium
Impact of Early‐Life Weight Status on Cognitive Abilities in Children
Author(s) -
Li Nan,
Yolton Kimberly,
Lanphear Bruce P.,
Chen Aimin,
Kalkwarf Heidi J.,
Braun Joseph M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.438
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1930-739X
pISSN - 1930-7381
DOI - 10.1002/oby.22192
Subject(s) - cognition , intelligence quotient , medicine , working memory , neuropsychology , pediatrics , developmental psychology , psychology , psychiatry
Objective Whether obesity is associated with childhood cognition is unknown. Given the sensitivity of the developing brain to environmental factors, this study examined whether early‐life weight status was associated with children's cognition. Methods Using data from mother–child pairs enrolled in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study (2003–2006), children's early‐life weight status was assessed using weight‐for‐length/height standard deviation (SD) scores. A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to assess cognition, executive function, and visual‐spatial abilities at ages 5 and 8 years. Using linear mixed models, associations between early‐life weight status and cognition were estimated. Results Among 233 children, 167 were lean (≤1 SD) and 48 were nonlean (>1 SD). After covariate adjustment, the results suggest that full‐scale intelligence quotient scores decreased with a 1‐unit increase in weight‐for‐height SD score (β = –1.4, 95% CI: –3.0 to 0.1). For individual component scores, with a 1‐unit increase in weight‐for‐height SD score, perceptual reasoning (β = –1.7, 95% CI: –3.3 to 0.0) and working memory (β: –2.4, CI: –4.4 to –0.4) scores decreased. Weight status was generally not associated with other cognition measures. Conclusions Within this cohort of typically developing children, early‐life weight status was inversely associated with children's perceptual reasoning and working memory scores and possibly with full‐scale intelligent quotient scores.