Maternal age and offspring developmental vulnerability at age five: A population-based cohort study of Australian children

The objective of this study is to quantify a child ’s risk of developmental vulnerability at age five, according to their mother’s age at childbirth. Methods and findingsLinkage of population-level perinatal, hospital, and birth registration datasets to data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) and school enrolments in Australia ’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), enabled us to follow a cohort of 99,530 children from birth to their first year of school in 2009 or 2012. The study outcome was teacher-reported child development on five domains measured by the AEDC, including physical health and well-being, emotion al maturity, social competence, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. Developmental vulnerability was defined as domain scores below the 2009 AEDC 10th percentile cut point.The mean maternal age at childbirth was 29.6 years (standard deviation [SD], 5.7), wit h 4,382 children (4.4%) born to mothers aged
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research