Maternal Education, Anthropometric Markers of Malnutrition and Cognitive Function (ELSA-Brasil)

Overview

Journal BMC Public Health

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Public Health

Date 2014 Jul 4

PMID 24989981

Citations 7

Authors

Larissa Fortunato Araujo

Luana Giatti

Dora Chor

Valeria Maria Azeredo Passos

Sandhi Maria Barreto

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The early exposure to poor social and nutritional conditions may influence cognitive function during adult age. However, the relative impact of these factors has not yet been established and they can vary during the course of life.

Methods: Analysis of data from 12,997 participants (35-64 years) of the baseline exams (2008-2010) of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), a cohort of Brazilian civil servants. Four cognitive tests were applied: learning, recall and word recognition; semantic and phonemic verbal fluency; trail-making test version B. The markers of early nutritional and social conditions were maternal educational level, birth weight, and length of trunk and leg. The presence of independent association between every early marker and the poor performance in each cognitive test was investigated by multiple logistic regression, after mutual adjustment and considering the effects of gender, age and participant's schooling level. The cut off for poor performance was the worst age-specific percentile of the final score distribution for each test.

Results: After full adjustments, lower maternal education increased the chances of poor performance in all cognitive tests, with a dose-response gradient; low birth-weight was related to poor performance in the trail-making test B (OR = 1.63, 95% IC = 1.29-2.06); and greater trunk length decreased the chances of poor performance in the semantic and phonemic verbal fluency (OR = 0.96, 95% IC = 0.94-0.97) and in the trail-making test B (OR = 0.94, 95% IC = 0.92-0.95). Leg length was not associated with any of the tests examined. The associations found were not modified by the educational attainment of the participants.

Conclusions: Early exposure to adverse social and nutritional conditions appear detrimental to semantic memory, learning, concentration, executive control and language among adults, independent of adulthood educational achievement.

Citing Articles

Association between Sedentary Behavior and Cognitive Performance in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults: Cross-Sectional Results from ELSA-Brasil.

Moreira P, de Matos S, Pitanga F, Giatti L, Barreto S, Griep R Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(21).

PMID: 36361115 PMC: 9654160. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192114234.

Intellectual Performance and Educational Attainment of Mexican Adolescents in Poverty.

Palomar-Lever J, Victorio-Estrada A Eur J Psychol. 2021; 15(3):553-567.

PMID: 33680146 PMC: 7909180. DOI: 10.5964/ejop.v15i3.1542.

Diabetes and hypertension are associated with lowered cognitive performance among middle-aged Brazilian adults: cross-sectional analyses nested in the longitudinal Pró-Saúde study.

Passos V, Raymundo C, Bezerra F, Faerstein E Sao Paulo Med J. 2021; 139(1):46-52.

PMID: 33656123 PMC: 9632506. DOI: 10.1590/1516-3180.2020.0269.R1.30102020.

Size at birth and cognitive ability in late life: A systematic review.

Krishna M, Jones S, Maden M, Du B, Mc R, Kumaran K Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2019; 34(8):1139-1169.

PMID: 31056774 PMC: 6771720. DOI: 10.1002/gps.5138.

Childhood deprivation and later-life cognitive function in a population-based study of older rural South Africans.

Kobayashi L, Glymour M, Kahn K, Payne C, Wagner R, Montana L Soc Sci Med. 2017; 190:20-28.

PMID: 28837862 PMC: 5915343. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.08.009.

References

Dubow E, Boxer P, Huesmann L . Long-term Effects of Parents' Education on Children's Educational and Occupational Success: Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations. Merrill Palmer Q (Wayne State Univ Press). 2010; 55(3):224-249. PMC: 2853053. DOI: 10.1353/mpq.0.0030. View

M L Aquino E, Barreto S, Bensenor I, Carvalho M, Chor D, Duncan B . Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil): objectives and design. Am J Epidemiol. 2012; 175(4):315-24. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwr294. View

Melrose R, Brewster P, Marquine M, MacKay-Brandt A, Reed B, Farias S . Early life development in a multiethnic sample and the relation to late life cognition. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2014; 70(4):519-31. PMC: 4462667. DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbt126. View

Hackman D, Farah M, Meaney M . Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010; 11(9):651-9. PMC: 2950073. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2897. View

Beeri M, Davidson M, Silverman J, Noy S, Schmeidler J, Goldbourt U . Relationship between body height and dementia. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2005; 13(2):116-23. PMC: 3163094. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajgp.13.2.116. View

Steinerman J, Hall C, Sliwinski M, Lipton R . Modeling cognitive trajectories within longitudinal studies: a focus on older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010; 58 Suppl 2:S313-8. PMC: 3057764. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02982.x. View

Ferri C, Prince M, Brayne C, Brodaty H, Fratiglioni L, Ganguli M . Global prevalence of dementia: a Delphi consensus study. Lancet. 2005; 366(9503):2112-7. PMC: 2850264. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67889-0. View

Zhao J, Brunner E, Kumari M, Singh-Manoux A, Hawe E, Talmud P . APOE polymorphism, socioeconomic status and cognitive function in mid-life--the Whitehall II longitudinal study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2005; 40(7):557-63. PMC: 5063922. DOI: 10.1007/s00127-005-0925-y. View

Bogin B, Varela-Silva M . Leg length, body proportion, and health: a review with a note on beauty. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2010; 7(3):1047-75. PMC: 2872302. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph7031047. View

10.

Case A, Paxson C . Height, Health, and Cognitive Function at Older Ages. Am Econ Rev. 2014; 98(2):463-467. PMC: 4138508. DOI: 10.1257/aer.98.2.463. View

11.

Santos I, Griep R, Alves M, Goulart A, Lotufo P, Barreto S . Job stress is associated with migraine in current workers: the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Eur J Pain. 2014; 18(9):1290-7. DOI: 10.1002/j.1532-2149.2014.489.x. View

12.

Glymour M, Manly J . Lifecourse social conditions and racial and ethnic patterns of cognitive aging. Neuropsychol Rev. 2008; 18(3):223-54. DOI: 10.1007/s11065-008-9064-z. View

13.

Rogers M, Plassman B, Kabeto M, Fisher G, McArdle J, Llewellyn D . Parental education and late-life dementia in the United States. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2008; 22(1):71-80. PMC: 2670459. DOI: 10.1177/0891988708328220. View

14.

Schmidt M, Duncan B, Mill J, Lotufo P, Chor D, Barreto S . Cohort Profile: Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Int J Epidemiol. 2014; 44(1):68-75. PMC: 4339754. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyu027. View

15.

Hackman D, Farah M . Socioeconomic status and the developing brain. Trends Cogn Sci. 2009; 13(2):65-73. PMC: 3575682. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.003. View

16.

Mueller N, Duncan B, Barreto S, Chor D, Bessel M, M L Aquino E . Earlier age at menarche is associated with higher diabetes risk and cardiometabolic disease risk factors in Brazilian adults: Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2014; 13:22. PMC: 3899384. DOI: 10.1186/1475-2840-13-22. View

17.

Abbott R, White L, Ross G, Petrovitch H, Masaki K, Snowdon D . Height as a marker of childhood development and late-life cognitive function: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Pediatrics. 1998; 102(3 Pt 1):602-9. DOI: 10.1542/peds.102.3.602. View

18.

Sliwinski M, Hofer S, Hall C, Buschke H, Lipton R . Modeling memory decline in older adults: the importance of preclinical dementia, attrition, and chronological age. Psychol Aging. 2003; 18(4):658-671. DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.18.4.658. View

19.

Torche F, Echevarria G . The effect of birthweight on childhood cognitive development in a middle-income country. Int J Epidemiol. 2011; 40(4):1008-18. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyr030. View

20.

Byford M, Kuh D, Richards M . Parenting practices and intergenerational associations in cognitive ability. Int J Epidemiol. 2012; 41(1):263-72. PMC: 3304524. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyr188. View