LATEBREAKER
Aging
Association between birthweight and cognitive function in middle-aged adults: the Bogalusa Heart Study Eunsun Gill* Eunsun Gill Soo Jung Kang David J Libon Ileana De Anda-Duran Lydia A Bazzano Wei Chen Camilo Fernandez Alonso Emily W Harville
Introduction: Although the relationship between low birthweight and impaired global cognitive function (CF) before midlife has been demonstrated, the relationship between birthweight and cognition after midlife and potential racial disparities remain inconclusive. This study examined the association between birthweight and midlife CF stratified by race.
Methods: 1,032 subjects from the Bogalusa Heart Study (67% Whites, 33% Blacks, mean age 48.1 ± 5.3 years) were studied. Cognition was assessed with tests measuring verbal episodic memory, working memory, attention, graphomotor information processing speed, language, and global CF. Each test was standardized by sex and age, then averaged. The global CF was computed by averaging all cognitive test scores. Standardized scores from the Wide Range Achievement Test-III (WRAT-III)–Reading subtest and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III)–Vocabulary subtest measured achieved education. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate the association between birthweight (per 100 grams) and CF, adjusting for age, sex, personal achieved education, smoking, drinking, parental education, maternal age at birth, and maternal hypertension and diabetes, with multiple imputation used to address missing covariates.
Results: For Whites, each 100 gram decrease in birthweight was associated with a reduction of 0.008 standardized units in the global CF (SE: 0.005; p=0.016), but this association was not observed in Blacks (beta (SE): 0.009 (0.005); p=0.084). In Whites, lower birthweight was associated with worse graphomotor information processing speed (beta (SE): 0.014 (0.006); p=0.014), but not in Blacks (beta (SE): 0.005 (0.008); p=0.561).
Conclusions: By midlife, lower birthweight appears to convey vulnerability with respect to global CF and graphomotor information processing speed in Whites but not in Blacks. Importantly, the impact of birthweight on selected cognitive abilities in midlife may vary by race.
