TY - JOUR
T1 - Infertility, infertility treatment and psychomotor development: the Danish National Birth Cohort
AU - Zhu, Jin Liang
AU - Basso, Olga
AU - Obel, Carsten
AU - Hvidtjørn, Dorte
AU - Olsen, Jørn
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Babies born of infertile couples, regardless of treatment, have a higher risk of preterm birth and low birthweight, conditions associated with delayed development. We examined developmental milestones in singletons as a function of parental infertility [time to pregnancy (TTP) > 12 months] and infertility treatment. From the Danish National Birth Cohort (1997-2003), we identified 37 897 singletons born of fertile couples (TTP < or = 12 months), 4351 born of infertile couples conceiving naturally (TTP > 12 months), and 3309 born after infertility treatment. When the children were about 18 months old, mothers reported 12 developmental milestones by responding to structured questions. We defined a failure to achieve the assessed milestone or the minimal numbers of milestones in a summary (motor, or cognitive/language skills) as delay. Naturally conceived children born of infertile couples had a pattern of psychomotor development similar to that of children born of fertile couples, but increasing TTP correlated with a modest delay. When the analysis was restricted to infertile couples (treated and untreated), children born after treatment showed a slight delay in cognitive/language development (odds ratio 1.24, [95% confidence interval 1.01, 1.53]) for not meeting at least three out of six cognitive/language milestones); children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) had the highest estimated relative risk of delay for most milestones, especially motor milestones. These results suggest that a long TTP may be associated with a modest developmental delay. Infertility treatment, especially ICSI, may be associated with a slight delay for some of these early milestones.
AB - Babies born of infertile couples, regardless of treatment, have a higher risk of preterm birth and low birthweight, conditions associated with delayed development. We examined developmental milestones in singletons as a function of parental infertility [time to pregnancy (TTP) > 12 months] and infertility treatment. From the Danish National Birth Cohort (1997-2003), we identified 37 897 singletons born of fertile couples (TTP < or = 12 months), 4351 born of infertile couples conceiving naturally (TTP > 12 months), and 3309 born after infertility treatment. When the children were about 18 months old, mothers reported 12 developmental milestones by responding to structured questions. We defined a failure to achieve the assessed milestone or the minimal numbers of milestones in a summary (motor, or cognitive/language skills) as delay. Naturally conceived children born of infertile couples had a pattern of psychomotor development similar to that of children born of fertile couples, but increasing TTP correlated with a modest delay. When the analysis was restricted to infertile couples (treated and untreated), children born after treatment showed a slight delay in cognitive/language development (odds ratio 1.24, [95% confidence interval 1.01, 1.53]) for not meeting at least three out of six cognitive/language milestones); children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) had the highest estimated relative risk of delay for most milestones, especially motor milestones. These results suggest that a long TTP may be associated with a modest developmental delay. Infertility treatment, especially ICSI, may be associated with a slight delay for some of these early milestones.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-3016.2008.00989.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-3016.2008.00989.x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 19159396
SN - 0269-5022
VL - 23
SP - 98
EP - 106
JO - Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology (Print)
JF - Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology (Print)
IS - 2
ER -