Publications
Childhood cognitive ability: relationship to gestational diabetes mellitus in India
Veena SR, Krishnaveni GV, Srinivasan K, Kurpad AV, Muthayya S, Hill JC, Kiran KN, Fall CHD AIMS/HYPOTHESIS:
Our aim was to test the hypothesis that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in mothers is associated with poorer cognitive ability in their offspring in India.
METHODS:
During 1997 to 1998 maternal GDM status was assessed by OGTT at 30 +/- 2 weeks of gestation. Between 2007 and 2008, at a mean age of 9.7 years, 515 children (32 offspring of GDM mothers [ODM]; 483 offspring of non-GDM mothers [controls]) from the Mysore Parthenon birth cohort underwent cognitive function assessment using tests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children--Second Edition and additional tests measuring learning, long-term storage/retrieval, short-term memory, reasoning, attention and concentration, and visuo-spatial and verbal abilities.
RESULTS:
Compared with controls, ODM scored higher in tests for learning, long-term retrieval/storage (p = 0.008), reasoning (p = 0.02), verbal ability (p = 0.01), and attention and concentration (p = 0.003). In multiple regression, adjusted for the child's age, sex, gestation, neonatal weight and head circumference, maternal age, parity and BMI, and the parent's socioeconomic status, education and rural/urban residence, this difference remained significant only for learning, long-term retrieval/storage (beta = 0.4 SD (95% CI 0.01-0.75); p = 0.04) and verbal ability (beta = 0.5 SD (95% CI 0.09-0.83); p = 0.02), and not with other test scores.
CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION:
In this population of healthy Indian children, there was no evidence of lower cognitive ability in ODM. In fact some cognitive scores were higher in ODM.
