Browsing by Author "Nakane, Elina"

Objectives. Maternal diabetes during the pregnancy increases the risk of pregnancy complications, but the effects of maternal diabetes on offspring cognition are less understood. Earlier studies have mainly associated the adverse effects of maternal diabetes with slight deficits in general cognitive and verbal functions in young children. Despite the earlier studies, it is unclear, does maternal diabetes per se affect cognitive development in children and adult offspring. The offspring with several developmental risks seem to be more prone to the adverse effects of maternal diabetes than offspring without the other concomitant risks. The aim of this study was to examine is maternal diabetes associated to lowered offspring general cognitive function in childhood and midlife, when the other concomitant perinatal risks occurred or either did not occur. A hypothesis was that maternal diabetes is associated to lowered general cognitive function only in children who had the other concomitant perinatal risks. Another aim was to explore is there a time related change in the risk groups. Methods. This study is a part of a prospective birth-cohort study originating in Helsinki region that follows 1971 to 1974 born risk group offspring. Out of 22,359 consecutive deliveries at the Institute of Midwifery during that time, 93 offspring had mother's diabetes obtained during the pregnancy or before it. Of the offspring with maternal diabetes, 59 had maternal diabetes as the only risk, and 34 had at least another predefined concomitant risk. General cognitive function in the subjects and controls was assessed by Wechsler Intelligence Scales at 9 and 40 years as a part of the wider neuropsychological examination. Differences between the groups were examined by group and pairwise comparisons. Longitudinal changes in general cognitive function in each group were estimated by fitting the linear multilevel models. Results and conclusions. Findings of the present study were controversial to the hypothesis. Both risk groups, with and without other concomitant risks, had lower general and verbal function in childhood than controls. At midlife, no effect of maternal diabetes was found. The results indicated that general cognitive function and acquired verbal information improved at least in the risk group with the other concomitant risks. Otherwise performance remained relatively same.