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Table 3.

Association between maternal FT4 (gestational week median 12, range: 8–20 weeks) and productive vocabulary from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI) in the offspring aged 12–36 months (models 3 and 4). The association between FT4 and the probability of producing words from the MB-CDI are estimated by conditional growth models, including effects of time (offspring age) and main effects of covariates. The outputs of the conditional growth models are reported as odds ratios (OR), standard error (SE), and 95% CI. Numbers represent complete cases included in the analyses. P-values <0.05 are significant and marked in bold.

Girls Boys
OR SE 95% CI P OR SE 95% CI P
FT4 (<20% vs >80% percentile)
 Girls, n = 97
 Boys, n =111
 Intercept 1.00 0.00 1.00; 1.00 <0.001 1.00 0.00 1.00; 1.00 <0.001
 Offspring age 10.88 0.02 10.56; 11.21 <0.001 10.69 0.01 10.44; 10.96 <0.001
 FT4 (>80%) 1.26 0.15 0.95; 1.69 0.11 0.97 0.14 0.74; 1.28 0.83
 Maternal age 0.88 0.17 0.64; 1.22 0.46 0.88 0.15 0.65; 1.19 0.40
 Breastfeeding 1.14 0.13 0.88; 1.47 0.33 1.24 1.14 0.95; 1.62 0.12
 Maternal education
  Linear 1.37 0.15 1.02; 1.84 0.04 0.93 0.16 0.68; 1.26 0.63
  Quadratic 1.18 0.14 0.89; 1.55 0.25 0.81 0.14 0.61; 1.07 0.14
 Primi- and multi-parous 0.92 0.17 0.66; 1.28 0.61 0.85 0.16 0.62; 1.17 0.32
 Pre-pregnancy BMI
  <18.5 0.75 0.14 0.57; 0.99 0.045 1.08 0.15 0.80; 1.45 0.62
  >25 1.16 0.14 0.88; 1.52 0.29 0.97 0.14 0.73; 1.27 0.80
 Offspring age × FT4 (>80%) 0.77 0.03 0.72; 0.82 <0.001 0.90 0.03 0.84; 0.95 <0.001
FT4 (linear)
 Girls, n = 277
 Boys, n = 298
 Intercept 1.00 0.00 1.00; 1.00 <0.001 1.00 0.00 1.00; 1.00 <0.001
 Offspring age 15.90 0.04 14.65; 17.26 <0.001 8.59 0.04 7.99; 9.24 <0.001
 FT4 (linear) 1.13 0.09 0.95; 1.34 0.18 0.89 0.09 0.74; 1.07 0.21
 Maternal age 0.89 0.10 0.73; 1.08 0.22 0.77 0.10 0.64; 0.93 0.01
 Breastfeeding 1.19 0.08 1.02; 1.40 0.03 1.22 0.08 1.04; 1.44 0.02
 Maternal education ()
  Linear 1.17 0.09 0.98; 1.40 0.08 1.02 0.09 0.85; 1.22 0.87
  Quadratic 1.12 0.09 0.95; 1.33 0.19 0.86 0.09 0.73; 1.02 0.09
 Primi- and multi-parous 0.77 0.10 0.63; 0.93 0.01 0.95 0.09 0.79; 1.14 0.58
 Pre-pregnancy BMI 0.86 0.10 0.70; 1.05 0.14 1.10 0.09 0.92; 1.31 0.30
  <18.5
  >25 1.03 0.09 0.87; 1.21 0.77 0.96 0.09 0.81; 1.14 0.63
 Offspring age × FT4 (linear) 0.60 0.05 0.55; 0.65 <0.001 1.13 0.04 1.05; 1.23 0.002

BMI, body mass index; FT4, free thyroxine.