Robyn McCarthy, Penny A Cook, Joshua Pink, Lucy H Eddy
{"title":"Associations between prenatal alcohol exposure and early education outcomes: a matched controls study using the born in Bradford dataset.","authors":"Robyn McCarthy, Penny A Cook, Joshua Pink, Lucy H Eddy","doi":"10.1017/S2040174424000369","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with cognitive, behavioural, and developmental impairments throughout the lifespan of affected individuals, but there is limited evidence on how early this impact can be identified through routinely collected childhood data. This paper explores the relationship between PAE and the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), a statutory teacher-based summative assessment of early development in relation to learning goals. This analysis uses the Born in Bradford dataset, a UK based cohort (<i>n</i> = 13,959; full dataset), which collected self-reported PAE from 11,905 mothers, with 19.8% reporting drinking alcohol at some point during pregnancy. Coarsened exact matching was conducted to examine relationships between patterns of PAE and children achieving a 'Good Level of Development' on the EYFSP, a binary variable assessed at 4-5 years of age, controlling for known confounders, including deprivation, mother's education, exposure to other teratogenic substances, and child's age at assessment. Additionally, we examined EYFSP sub-scores to identify specific developmental deficits associated with PAE.The key finding is a statistically significant association between PAE at a level of consuming 5 or more units of alcohol (equivalent to 50 ml or 40 g of pure alcohol) at least once per week from the 4<sup>th</sup> month of pregnancy onwards and lower EYFSP scores when accounting for established confounding variables. These findings highlight that the detrimental impact of alcohol during pregnancy can be identified using statutory educational assessments. This has implications internationally for prevention work, policy, and commissioning of support services for people impacted by PAE.</p>","PeriodicalId":49167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease","volume":"15 ","pages":"e29"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S2040174424000369","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with cognitive, behavioural, and developmental impairments throughout the lifespan of affected individuals, but there is limited evidence on how early this impact can be identified through routinely collected childhood data. This paper explores the relationship between PAE and the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), a statutory teacher-based summative assessment of early development in relation to learning goals. This analysis uses the Born in Bradford dataset, a UK based cohort (n = 13,959; full dataset), which collected self-reported PAE from 11,905 mothers, with 19.8% reporting drinking alcohol at some point during pregnancy. Coarsened exact matching was conducted to examine relationships between patterns of PAE and children achieving a 'Good Level of Development' on the EYFSP, a binary variable assessed at 4-5 years of age, controlling for known confounders, including deprivation, mother's education, exposure to other teratogenic substances, and child's age at assessment. Additionally, we examined EYFSP sub-scores to identify specific developmental deficits associated with PAE.The key finding is a statistically significant association between PAE at a level of consuming 5 or more units of alcohol (equivalent to 50 ml or 40 g of pure alcohol) at least once per week from the 4th month of pregnancy onwards and lower EYFSP scores when accounting for established confounding variables. These findings highlight that the detrimental impact of alcohol during pregnancy can be identified using statutory educational assessments. This has implications internationally for prevention work, policy, and commissioning of support services for people impacted by PAE.
期刊介绍:
JDOHaD publishes leading research in the field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). The Journal focuses on the environment during early pre-natal and post-natal animal and human development, interactions between environmental and genetic factors, including environmental toxicants, and their influence on health and disease risk throughout the lifespan. JDOHaD publishes work on developmental programming, fetal and neonatal biology and physiology, early life nutrition, especially during the first 1,000 days of life, human ecology and evolution and Gene-Environment Interactions.
JDOHaD also accepts manuscripts that address the social determinants or education of health and disease risk as they relate to the early life period, as well as the economic and health care costs of a poor start to life. Accordingly, JDOHaD is multi-disciplinary, with contributions from basic scientists working in the fields of physiology, biochemistry and nutrition, endocrinology and metabolism, developmental biology, molecular biology/ epigenetics, human biology/ anthropology, and evolutionary developmental biology. Moreover clinicians, nutritionists, epidemiologists, social scientists, economists, public health specialists and policy makers are very welcome to submit manuscripts.
The journal includes original research articles, short communications and reviews, and has regular themed issues, with guest editors; it is also a platform for conference/workshop reports, and for opinion, comment and interaction.