Poverty may increase neurological impairment risk in children: study

Poverty may slightly increase the risk of neurological impairment in children, leading to learning difficulties, attention deficit disorders and psychological conditions such as anxiety disorders and schizophrenia, according to a study released Wednesday by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In most cases, the impairment would not be apparent to a casual observer, and the researchers said it appears to be distinct from the risk of cognitive and emotional delays known to accompany early-life poverty.

"The size of the effect we saw was modest," said the study's senior author, Stephen Gilman, acting chief of the Health Behavior Branch at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "However, the findings do indicate that an impoverished environment may pose a hazard for a child's developing nervous system."

Researchers analyzed data on more than 50,000 pregnancies and the children resulting from them, which was collected in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the U.S. Collaborative Perinatal Project. Children in the study received comprehensive neurological examinations at birth, four months, one year and seven years of age.

Based on interviews at the start of the study, the researchers classified the parents into three groups: those having a low, medium, or high likelihood of socioeconomic disadvantage based on such factors as educational level, income relative to the U.S. poverty level, occupation, employment status, and whether there were two parents living in the home.

When the researchers factored in the likelihood for pregnancy and birth complications, they found little difference in neurological impairment at birth between the children, despite their parents' socioeconomic disadvantage.

Beginning at age four months, however, children born to the most disadvantaged parents had a 12.8 percent chance of having a neurological abnormality, compared to 9.3 percent of the least disadvantaged children.

By age seven, the likelihood of a neurological abnormality increased to 20.2 percent among the most disadvantaged, compared to 13.5 percent among the least disadvantaged.

People living in poverty are at a higher risk for substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and child abuse, and the researchers believed these factors could explain the higher rates of neurological impairment their study found for children raised in impoverished environments.

Further research into how childhood poverty might contribute to neurological impairment could lead to ways to prevent neurological impairment from occurring, said the researchers.

The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.