Original articleSocioeconomic Position, Maternal IQ, Home Environment, and Cognitive Development
Section snippets
Methods
The primary objective of the Port Pirie Cohort Study was to examine the relation between exposure to environmental lead and child development. The children living in and around the lead-smelting town of Port Pirie, South Australia, were followed from birth to age 11 to 13 years. Details of the research design have been reported elsewhere.17, 18, 19, 20, 21
Overview of the Predictors of Cognitive Development
The mean value of cognitive scores at ages 2, 4, 7, and 11 to 13 years was 109.2, 107.1, 104.7, and 100.0, respectively. The father’s occupational prestige, HOME score, and maternal IQ were clearly associated with cognitive function at all ages examined (P ≤ .01), and there appeared to be a consistent dose-response relation (Figure 1).
Daniel Scale and Cognitive Development
Table I (available at www.jpeds.com) presents a statistically significant positive association between father’s occupational prestige and children’s cognitive
Discussion
In this cohort of children, socioeconomic position, maternal IQ, and the quality of home environment were consistently associated with cognitive development, even after adjustment for a wide range of confounders. Our results indicate that the three measures of socioeconomic characteristics have an independent impact on childhood cognitive development. In general, the higher the occupational prestige and maternal IQ and the better the home environment, the higher the children’s cognitive
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Supported by a series of grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation; Dr Shilu Tong is supported by an NHMRC Research Fellowship.