Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2024

Open Access 01-12-2024 | Research

Associations of parental age at pregnancy with adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems: a birth cohort in rural Western China

Authors: Wanting Wan, Yingze Zhu, Jiaxin Tian, Yue Cheng, Lingxia Zeng, Zhonghai Zhu

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2024

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

The relationship between parental age at pregnancy and offspring development in low- and middle-income countries remains unclear. We aimed to examine the associations of parental age at pregnancy with adolescent development in rural China.

Methods

We conducted a prospective birth cohort study of offspring born to pregnant women who participated in an antenatal micronutrient supplementation trial in rural Western China. Adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems were assessed by using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV and the Youth Self-Report-2001, respectively. After accounting for the possible nonlinear relationships, we examined the linear associations between parental age (in years) at pregnancy and scores of adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems by performing generalized estimating equations.

Results

Among 1897 adolescents followed from birth to early adolescence, 59.5% were male with a mean age of 11.8 (standard deviation (SD): 0.8) years. The mean ages of mothers and fathers at pregnancy were 24.6 (SD: 4.4) and 27.9 (SD: 4.1) years old, respectively. All the P values of the nonlinear terms between parental age and adolescent development in all domains were greater than 0.05. Each one-year increase in maternal age at pregnancy was associated with a 0.29-point (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06, 0.52) increase in the full-scale intelligence quotient in early adolescence. After parental age was categorized into quartiles, the total behavioural problem scores of adolescents with fathers with an age in the fourth quartile (Q4) were 6.71 (95% CI 0.86, 12.57) points higher than those of adolescents with fathers with an age in the first quartile (Q1), with a linear trend P value of 0.01. Similarly, higher scores (worse behavioural problems) were observed for internalizing behavioural problems and other emotional and behavioural symptoms related to anxiety, withdrawal, social problems, thought problems and aggressive behaviour.

Conclusions

At conception, older maternal age was independently linked to better adolescent cognitive development, whereas advanced paternal age was independently associated with a greater risk of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems. These findings suggest that public health policies targeting an optimal parental age at pregnancy should be developed in the context of offspring developmental consequences.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
Bergh C, Pinborg A, Wennerholm U. Parental age and child outcomes. Fertil Steril. 2019;111:1036–46.CrossRefPubMed
2.
Khandwala YS, Zhang CA, Lu Y, Eisenberg ML. The age of fathers in the USA is rising: an analysis of 168 867 480 births from 1972 to 2015. Hum Reprod. 2017;32(10):2110–6.CrossRefPubMed
3.
Matthews TJ, Hamilton BE. Delayed childbearing: more women are having their first child later in life. NCHS Data Brief. 2009;(21):1–8.
4.
5.
Bongaarts J, Blanc AK. Estimating the current mean age of mothers at the birth of their first child from household surveys. Popul Health Metr. 2015;13:25.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
6.
7.
Huda MM, O’Flaherty M, Finlay JE, Al MA. Time trends and sociodemographic inequalities in the prevalence of adolescent motherhood in 74 low-income and middle-income countries: a population-based study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2021;5(1):26–36.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Wu H, Zhao M, Liang Y, Liu F, Xi B. Maternal age at birth and neonatal mortality: associations from 67 low-income and middle-income countries. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2021;35(3):318–27.CrossRefPubMed
9.
Fall CHD, Sachdev HS, Osmond C, Restrepo-Mendez MC, Victora C, Martorell R, et al. Association between maternal age at childbirth and child and adult outcomes in the offspring: a prospective study in five low-income and middle-income countries (COHORTS collaboration). Lancet Glob Health. 2015;3:e366–77.CrossRefPubMed
10.
Du J, Rolls ET, Gong W, Cao M, Vatansever D, Zhang J, et al. Association between parental age, brain structure, and behavioral and cognitive problems in children. Mol Psychiatry. 2022;27(2):967–75.CrossRefPubMed
11.
Ashapkin V, Suvorov A, Pilsner JR, Krawetz SA, Sergeyev O. Age-associated epigenetic changes in mammalian sperm: implications for offspring health and development. Hum Reprod Update. 2023;29(1):24–44.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Khatun M, Al Mamun A, Scott J, William GM, Clavarino A, Najman JM. Do children born to teenage parents have lower adult intelligence? A prospective birth cohort study. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(3):e0167395.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
13.
Duncan GJ, Lee KTH, Rosales-Rueda M, Kalil A. Maternal age and child development. Demography. 2018;55(6):2229–55.CrossRefPubMed
14.
Lee JO, Jeong CH, Yuan C, Boden JM, Umaña-Taylor AJ, Noris M, et al. Externalizing behavior problems in offspring of teen mothers: a Meta-analysis. J Youth Adolesc. 2020;49(6):1146–61.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
15.
Zondervan-Zwijnenburg MAJ, Veldkamp SAM, Neumann A, Barzeva SA, Nelemans SA, van Beijsterveldt CEM, et al. Parental age and offspring childhood mental health: a multi-cohort, population-based investigation. Child Dev. 2020;91(3):964–82.CrossRefPubMed
16.
Moreno-Giménez A, Campos-Berga L, Nowak A, Sahuquillo-Leal R, D’Ocon A, Hervás D et al. Impact of maternal age on infants’ emotional regulation and psychomotor development. Psychol Med. 2021;1–12.
17.
Cui Y, Li F, Leckman JF, Guo L, Ke X, Liu J, et al. The prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems among Chinese school children and adolescents aged 6–16: a national survey. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021;30(2):233–41.CrossRefPubMed
18.
Zhou Y, Zhao C, Qi Y, Fan H, Huang X, Tian X, et al. Emotional and behavioral problems of left-behind children in impoverished rural China: a comparative cross-sectional study of Fourth-Grade Children. J Adolesc Health. 2020;67(5S):S48–54.CrossRefPubMed
19.
Zhu Z, Cheng Y, Zeng L, Elhoumed M, He G, Li W, et al. Association of antenatal micronutrient supplementation with adolescent intellectual development in rural western China. JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172(9):832–41.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
20.
McHutchison CA, Backhouse EV, Cvoro V, Shenkin SD, Wardlaw JM. Education, socioeconomic status, and intelligence in childhood and stroke risk in later life: a Meta-analysis. Epidemiology. 2017;28(4):608–18.CrossRefPubMed
21.
Calvin CM, Batty GD, Der G, Brett CE, Taylor A, Pattie A, et al. Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of death in 68 year follow-up: prospective population study. BMJ. 2017;357:j2708.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
22.
23.
von Stumm S, Deary IJ, Kivimäki M, Jokela M, Clark H, Batty GD. Childhood behavior problems and health at midlife: 35-year follow-up of a Scottish birth cohort. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011;52(9):992–1001.CrossRef
24.
Zeng L, Dibley MJ, Cheng Y, Dang S, Chang S, Kong L, Zeng L, Dibley MJ, Cheng Y, Dang S, Chang S, Kong L, et al. Impact of micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy on birth weight, duration of gestation, and perinatal mortality in rural western China: double blind cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2008;337:a2001.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
25.
Chen H, Keith TZ, Weiss L, Zhu J, Li Y. Testing for multigroup invariance of second-order WISC-IV structure across China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Pers Individ Dif. 2010;49(7):677–82.CrossRef
26.
Leung PW, Kwong SL, Tang CP, Ho TP, Hung SF, Lee CC, et al. Test-retest reliability and criterion validity of the Chinese version of CBCL, TRF, and YSR. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2006;47:970–3.CrossRefPubMed
27.
Zeng L, Yan H, Chen Z. Measurement of the living standards of family in rural area and relationship between wealth index and perinatal care status. Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2008;37:714–7.PubMed
28.
Villar J, Cheikh Ismail L, Victora CG, Ohuma EO, Bertino E, Altman DG, et al. International standards for newborn weight, length, and head circumference by gestational age and sex: the newborn cross-sectional study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project. Lancet. 2014;384(9946):857–68.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Vijayakumar N, Youssef G, Bereznicki H, Dehestani N, Silk TJ, Whittle S. The social determinants of emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents experiencing early puberty. J Adolesc Health. 2023;S1054-139X(23)00335-X.
30.
Campbell CL, Furlotte NA, Eriksson N, Hinds D, Auton A. Escape from crossover interference increases with maternal age. Nat Commun. 2015;6:6260.ADSCrossRefPubMed
31.
Fergusson DM, Woodward LJ. Maternal age and educational and psychosocial outcomes in early adulthood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1999;40(3):479–89.CrossRefPubMed
32.
García-Blanco A, Monferrer A, Grimaldos J, Hervás D, Balanzá-Martínez V, Diago V, et al. A preliminary study to assess the impact of maternal age on stress-related variables in healthy nulliparous women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017;78:97–104.CrossRefPubMed
33.
Tearne JE. Older maternal age and child behavioral and cognitive outcomes: a review of the literature. Fertil Steril. 2015;103(6):1381–91.CrossRefPubMed
34.
McGrath JJ, Petersen L, Agerbo E, Mors O, Mortensen PB, Pedersen CB. A comprehensive assessment of parental age and psychiatric disorders. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(3):301–9.CrossRefPubMed
35.
Milekic MH, Xin Y, O’Donnell A, Kumar KK, Bradley-Moore M, Malaspina D, et al. Age-related sperm DNA methylation changes are transmitted to offspring and associated with abnormal behavior and dysregulated gene expression. Mol Psychiatry. 2015;20(8):995–1001.CrossRefPubMed
36.
Janecka M, Manduca A, Servadio M, Trezza V, Smith R, Mill J, et al. Effects of advanced paternal age on trajectories of social behavior in offspring. Genes Brain Behav. 2015;14(6):443–53.CrossRefPubMed
37.
Krug A, Wöhr M, Seffer D, Rippberger H, Sungur AÖ, Dietsche B, et al. Advanced paternal age as a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders: a translational study. Mol Autism. 2020;11(1):54.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
38.
Marsh S, Dobson R, Maddison R. The relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes: a systematic scoping review. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):513.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
39.
Taanila A, Laitinen E, Moilanen I, Järvelin M-R. Effects of family interaction on the child’s behavior in single-parent or reconstructed families. Fam Process. 2002;41(4):693–708.CrossRefPubMed
40.
Hashemzadeh M, Shariati M, Mohammad Nazari A, Keramat A. Childbearing intention and its associated factors: a systematic review. Nurs Open. 2021;8(5):2354–68.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
41.
Alazbih NM, Kaya AH, Mengistu MY, Gelaye KA. Determinants of time to first marriage and birth intervals among women of child bearing age in Dabat Health and demographic surveillance system site, Northwest Ethiopia. PLoS ONE. 2023;18(2):e0281997.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
42.
Falster K, Hanly M, Banks E, Lynch J, Chambers G, Brownell M, et al. Maternal age and offspring developmental vulnerability at age five: a population-based cohort study of Australian children. PLoS Med. 2018;15(4):e1002558.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Metadata
Title
Associations of parental age at pregnancy with adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems: a birth cohort in rural Western China
Authors
Wanting Wan
Yingze Zhu
Jiaxin Tian
Yue Cheng
Lingxia Zeng
Zhonghai Zhu
Publication date
01-12-2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18309-z

Other articles of this Issue 1/2024

BMC Public Health 1/2024 Go to the issue

Research

3-month prevalence of unwanted sexual contact victimization in a national sample of college students: differences by race, gender identity, and sexual identity

Research

Increasing ratio of opportunistic infections associated with sunshine exposure and economic level burdening Chinese inflammatory bowel disease hospitalized patients: the first nationwide survey from 2014 to 2019

Research

Regional and rural-urban patterns in the prevalence of diagnosed hypertension among older U.S. adults with diabetes, 2005–2017

Research

Association between depressive symptoms and employment type of Korean workers: the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey

Research

The impact of residential environment on older people’s capabilities to live independently: a survey in Beijing

Research

Maternal macronutrient and energy intake during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis