General cognitive but not mathematic abilities predict very preterm and healthy term born adults' wealth

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 13;14(3):e0212789. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212789. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Objective: Very preterm (<32 weeks gestation; VP) and/or very low birth weight (<1500g; VLBW) children often have cognitive and mathematic difficulties. It is unknown whether VP/VLBW children's frequent mathematic problems significantly add to the burden of negative life-course consequences over and above effects of more general cognitive deficits. Our aim was to determine whether negative consequences of VP/VLBW versus healthy term birth on adult wealth are mediated by mathematic abilities in childhood, or rather explained by more general cognitive abilities.

Methods: 193 VP/VLBW and 217 healthy term comparison participants were studied prospectively from birth to adulthood as part of a geographically defined study in Bavaria (South Germany). Mathematic and general cognitive abilities were assessed at 8 years with standardized tests; wealth information was assessed at 26 years with a structured interview and summarized into a comprehensive index score. All scores were z-standardized.

Results: At 8 years, VP/VLBW (n = 193, 52.3% male) had lower mathematic and general cognitive abilities than healthy term comparison children (n = 217, 47.0% male). At 26 years, VP/VLBW had accumulated significantly lower overall wealth than term born comparison adults (-0.57 (1.08) versus -0.01 (1.00), mean difference 0.56 [0.36-0.77], p < .001). Structural equation modeling confirmed that VP/VLBW birth (β = -.13, p = .022) and childhood IQ (β = .24, p < .001) both directly predicted adult wealth, but math did not (β = .05, p = .413). Analyses were controlled for small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth, child sex, and family socioeconomic status.

Conclusion: This longitudinal study from birth to adulthood shows that VP/VLBW survivors' general cognitive rather than specific mathematic problems explain their diminished life-course success. These findings are important in order to design effective interventions at school age that reduce the burden of prematurity for those individuals who were born at highest neonatal risk.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Academic Success*
  • Adult
  • Child
  • Child Development*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cognition*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Germany
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Extremely Premature*
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Infant, Very Low Birth Weight*
  • Male
  • Mathematics*
  • Social Class

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG JA 1913 to J. J.; http://www.dfg.de/en/) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; PKE24, JUG14 to D. W. and P. B.; https://www.bmbf.de/en/index.html). D. W. was supported by EU Horizon 2020 (733280 RECAP; https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/). Funding for open access to this research was provided by University of Tennessee’s Open Publishing Support Fund. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the DFG, BMBF, EU, or UT. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.