Page 65 - Sample Moderate prematurity, socioeconomic status, and neurodevelopment in early childhood

Research question 3 (Chapter 4): Are moderate prematurity and low SES independently associated with behavioural and emotional problems at pre-school age, or do they have joint effects?
We hypothesized that low SES could explain why 8% to 10% of MP children struggle with behavioural and emotional problems. Therefore, our aim was to determine the separate and joint effects of moderate prematurity and low SES. We demonstrated that MP birth and low SES had separate, multiplicative effects on behavioural and emotional problems. This result did not confirm our hypothesis since we expected that low SES would partly explain the effects of moderate prematurity. In line with the gender differences shown in Chapter 3, girls were also more susceptible to the effects of low SES than boys. The difference between MP girls from low and from high SES families was great: 13.0% of the low SES girls had clinical-range problems, compared to an average of 4.9% in all girls participating in the study.
Research question 4 (Chapter 5): What is the prevalence of developmental delay co- occurring with emotional and behavioural problems in four-year-old, moderately preterm-born children compared to the prevalence in full-term controls?
In the total study population, 100 out of 1 441 children (6.9%) had some form of co-occurring developmental delay and emotional and behavioural problems. In the subgroup of MP children with developmental delay, on average 8%, rates of emotional and behavioural problems varied from 25% to 39% depending on the type of developmental delay. We also found that male gender, young maternal age, low SES, and non-Dutch ethnicity were significantly associated with co- occurrence. These factors were all included in the statistical analyses. The final statistical model showed a nearly twofold increase in the risk of co-occurrence in MP children compared to full-term children.
Research question 5 (Chapter 6): Does poor emotion regulation in 18-year-olds 7 predict the risk of coronary heart disease?
Emotion regulation may be a fundamental competence contributing to the pathophysiology of coronary heart disease (CHD), in that it may influence the
ability to cope with emotional events. We found that poor emotion regulation at the age of 18 was associated with a higher cumulative incidence of CHD, bridging a time span of nearly 40 years. Overall, the point estimates were fairly robust in multivariable models including childhood socioeconomic position, anxiety,
General discussion
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