Infant locomotive development and its association with adult blood pressure

Childhood Developmental Milestones and Risk of Adult Cerebrovascular Disease: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

INTRODUCTION

To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the relationship between childhood developmental milestones and risk of adulthood cerebrovascular disease (CeVD). We studied whether the risk of adult CeVD is associated with delayed attainment of motor and language milestones.

METHODS

Within the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, a total of 11,688 persons were followed from birth to either death, moving abroad or 54 years of age. CeVD diagnoses, i.e., ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and transient ischemic attacks, were extracted from national registers with diagnostic coding based on recommendations of the World Health Organization. Cox proportional hazard models stratified by sex were used to estimate associations of motor development and language milestones between ages 0 and 4 years and adult CeVD women-to-men relative hazard ratios (RHRs) were estimated for each developmental milestone. Analyses were adjusted for family socioeconomic status and birth weight for gestational age.

RESULTS

Altogether 498 (4.3%) CeVDs were recorded during follow-up. Among both sexes, later turning from back to tummy was associated with ischemic CeVD in adulthood with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.25 and 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-1.46 for men and an aHR: 1.20 (CI: 1.02-1.42) for women per 1 month delay in achievement. Delayed overall motor development, modeled by motor milestone principal component score, was related to increased risk of ischemic CeVD (aHR: 1.50; CI: 1.03-2.19) among men. Later achievement of making sounds was associated with any CeVD (aHR: 2.74; CI: 1.39-5.40) and especially ischemic CeVD (aHR: 3.41; CI: 1.65-7.06) among men with women-to-men RHR's of 0.17 (95% CI: 0.04-0.81) for any CeVD and RHR 0.18 (95% CI: 0.04-0.89) for ischemic stroke indicating risk to be lower in women compared to men.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that later achievement of childhood milestones could be a predictor for development of CeVD risk. The results point toward a common neurodevelopmental background and could in part explain lifetime CeVD risk accumulation.

Effects of Crawling before Walking: Network Interactions and Longitudinal Associations in 7-Year-Old Children

BACKGROUND

To study the impact of crawling before walking (CBW) on network interactions among body composition, the cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence and physical fitness, at age 7, and to assess the longitudinal association between CBW and body composition, the cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence, physical fitness and physical activity parameters, at age 7.

METHOD

CBW, body composition, cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence, physical fitness and physical activity were assessed in seventy-seven healthy Caucasian children.

RESULTS

Network analyses revealed that the crawling group had a greater number of links among all the studied variables compared with the non-crawling group. In the longitudinal study, using multiple regression analyses, crawling was independently associated with fat mass (%), fat-to-muscle ratio and systolic blood pressure, with models explaining up to 56.3%, 56.7% and 29.9% of their variance, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

CBW during child's development is a possible modulator in the network interactions between body systems and it could influence future metabolic and cardiovascular health.

Infant motor development and physical activity and sedentary time at midlife

This study investigated whether the timing of infant motor development is associated with self-reported and accelerometer-measured physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (ST) in midlife. This population-based study consisted of 4098 people born in 1966 in Northern Finland (NFBC 1966). Data on nine infant motor developmental milestones included making sounds, holding up the head, grabbing objects, turning from back to tummy, sitting without support, standing with support, walking with support, standing without support, and walking without support. At the age of 46, PA at leisure time and sitting time was self-reported. PA and ST were also measured with a wrist-worn Polar Active accelerometer that was instructed to be worn on the non-dominant hand 24 h/d for 14 days. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the association between infant motor development and PA and ST in midlife. Later infant motor development was weakly associated with higher accelerometer-measured light PA, but not with moderate-to-vigorous PA. Later infant locomotor development was associated with lower accelerometer-measured ST (β -0.07, p = 0.012) and lower self-reported sitting time at work (β -0.06, p = 0.004) in women. In conclusion, later infant motor development was associated with higher light PA and lower sedentary time at middle age. PA is a multifactorial behavior influenced by various factors from early childhood to midlife. Further research is required before more general conclusions can be drawn.

Association between age at onset of independent walking and objectively measured sedentary behavior is mediated by moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in primary school children

OBJECTIVE

Age at onset of walking has been shown as an early predictor of physical activity in infants and children. However, little is known about whether age at onset of walking may predict sedentary behavior (SB). The aim of the present study was to examine the association between the timing of onset of walking and objectively measured SB, and whether this association is mediated by moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in children.

METHODS

The subjects were 388 elementary school children aged 6-12 years. Current weight and height data were collected. Birth weight and the age in months the child first walked independently were reported based on the parents' recall. Children's SB and physical activity were objectively measured using a triaxial accelerometer (Active style Pro HJA-350IT, OMRON). The following summary outcome variables were derived from accelerometer data: Time (min/day) spent in SB (≤1.5 metabolic equivalents [METs]) and MVPA (≥3.0 METs).

RESULTS

The mean ± SD time (min/day) spent in sedentary was 376 ± 62 and MVPA was 67.6 ± 20.8. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that a later age at independent walking was associated with increased time spent in SB (β = 0.15, P < 0.001) and decreased time spent in MVPA (β = -0. 18, P < 0.001) after adjusting for gender, birth weight, current age, body weight, schools, and time spent wearing the accelerometer. When MVPA was introduced as a covariate in the model predicting SB, the association between the age at independent walking and time spent in SB was completely attenuated (β = 0.04, P = 0.215), while MVPA was significantly associated with SB (β = -0.61, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that infants who walked at a later age spent more time in SB in childhood, and this association is mediated by MVPA. Appropriate interventions which focus on increasing MVPA and thereby reducing SB may be beneficial in infants who demonstrate a later age at onset of independent walking.

Prognosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder may not be predetermined during early development--the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

BACKGROUND

Little is known about whether factors during the first years of life predict later outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). As part of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, we examined if prospectively collected early parenthood-related and developmental factors predict employment and hospitalization in individuals with and without SSD.

METHODS

Overall, 161 individuals with SSD and 10,116 without SSD were included in the study. Outcomes were analysed at age of 44-45years, defining "employment" as being employed for at least 25% of working days and "hospitalization" as having psychiatric hospitalization at least once during the last two years of follow-up. Maternal age, wantedness of pregnancy, grand multiparity, parental psychoses, birth weight, birth height, age of standing up and standing and walking without support were analysed as predictors.

RESULTS

Of the individuals with SSD, only 11.2% were employed, although 77.6% remained not hospitalized. In individuals with SSD, only young maternal age was associated with lower probability (OR 0.25, CI 0.08-0.77) of being non-hospitalized after controlling for sex and onset age of illness. Among persons without SSD, almost all parenthood-related and developmental factors were related to employment, while grand multiparity and parental psychosis were related to hospitalization after controlling for sex.

CONCLUSIONS

Only one of the early parenthood-related and developmental factors analysed in this study predicted outcome in individuals with SSD, while among those without SSD almost all factors were related to employment. Thus, prognosis of SSD does not seem to be predetermined much by early development.

Interaction between parental psychosis and early motor development and the risk of schizophrenia in a general population birth cohort

Background

Delayed motor development in infancy and family history of psychosis are both associated with increased risk of schizophrenia, but their interaction is largely unstudied.

Aim

To investigate the association of the age of achieving motor milestones and parental psychosis and their interaction in respect to risk of schizophrenia.

Methods

We used data from the general population-based prospective Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n = 10,283). Developmental information of the cohort members was gathered during regular visits to Finnish child welfare clinics. Several registers were used to determine the diagnosis of schizophrenia among the cohort members and psychosis among the parents. Altogether 152 (1.5%) individuals had schizophrenia by the age of 46 years, with 23 (15.1%) of them having a parent with psychosis. Cox regression analysis was used in analyses.

Results

Parental psychosis was associated (P < 0.05) with later achievement of holding the head up, grabbing an object, and walking without support. In the parental psychosis group, the risk for schizophrenia was increased if holding the head up (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.46; degrees of freedom [df] = 1; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.07–5.66) and touching the thumb with the index finger (HR: 1.84; df = 1; 95% CI: 1.11–3.06) was later. In the group without parental psychosis, a delay in the following milestones increased the risk of schizophrenia: standing without support and walking without support. Parental psychosis had an interaction with delayed touching thumb with index finger (HR: 1.87; df = 1; 95% CI: 1.08–3.25) when risk of schizophrenia was investigated.

Conclusions

Parental psychosis was associated with achieving motor milestones later in infancy, particularly the milestones that appear early in a child's life. Parental psychosis and touching the thumb with the index finger had a significant interaction on risk of schizophrenia. Genetic risk for psychosis may interact with delayed development to raise future risk of schizophrenia, or delayed development may be a marker of other risk processes that interact with genetic liability to cause later schizophrenia.