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S085-3

Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Neural Development from Infancy Through
Early Childhood

Galen Chin-Lun Hung1, Stephen Gilman2

1Taipei City Psychiatric Center, Taiwan 2National Institute of Health, USA

Background/Objective: Early social experiences are believed to shape neurodevelopment, with
potentially lifelong consequences. Yet minimal evidence exists regarding the role of the social
environment on children’s neural functioning, a core domain of neurodevelopment.

Method: We analyzed data from 36,443 participants in the United States Collaborative Perinatal
Project, a socioeconomically diverse pregnancy cohort conducted between 1959-1974. Study
outcomes included physician (neurologist or pediatrician) rated neurologic abnormality neonatally,
and thereafter at 4 months, 1 and 7 years; indicators of neurologic hard signs and soft signs; and
indicators of autonomic nervous system function.

Result: Children born to socioeconomically disadvantaged parents were more likely to exhibit
neurologic abnormalities at 4 months (odds ratio (OR)=1.20; 95% confidence interval
(CI)=1.06-1.37), 1 year (OR=1.35; CI=1.17-1.56), and 7 years (OR=1.67; CI=1.48-1.89), and more
likely to exhibit neurologic hard signs (OR=1.39; CI=1.10-1.76), soft signs (OR=1.26; CI=1.09-1.45)
and autonomic nervous system dysfunctions at 7 years. Pregnancy and delivery complications,
themselves associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, did not account for the higher risks of
neurologic abnormalities among disadvantaged children.

Conclusion: Parental socioeconomic disadvantage was, independent from pregnancy and delivery
complications, associated with abnormal child neural development during the first 7 years of life.
These findings reinforce the importance of the early environment for neurodevelopment generally,
and expand knowledge regarding the domains of neurodevelopment impacted by environmental
conditions. Further work is needed to determine the mechanisms linking socioeconomic
disadvantage with children’s neural functioning, the timing of such mechanisms, and their potential
reversibility.

Reference: Forns J, Torrent M, Garcia-Esteban R, et al. Longitudinal association between early life
socio-environmental factors and attention function at the age 11 years. Environ Res 2012; 117: 54-9
Heikura U, Taanila A, Hartikainen AL, et al. Variations in prenatal sociodemographic factors
associated with intellectual disability: a study of the 20-year interval between two birth cohorts in
northern Finland. Am J Epidemiol 2008; 167: 169-77