Table 3.
Associations (change in points of development score for each SD of mercury) between prenatal mercury exposure and child development score after adjustment for age at assessment and sex of child, maternal age, parity, education, smoking, alcohol, housing tenure, household crowding, family adversity score, life events in the first half of pregnancy and whether the child was breast fed. The analyses are presented for all offspring as well as for the two subgroups concerning whether or not the mother ate fish prenatally. Results with P<0.100 are shown in bold.
| N | β [95% CI] | P | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development scores at 6 months: | |||
| Social skills | |||
| All children | 2721 | +0.247 [+0.079,+0.415] | 0.004 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 354 | +0.136 [−0.186, +0.468] | 0.688 |
| Mother ate fish | 2354 | +0.260 [+0.081,+0.438] | 0.004 |
| Fine motor | |||
| All children | 2723 | +0.184 [−0.032, +0.400] | 0.094 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 354 | +0.708 [−0.125, +1.541] | 0.095 |
| Mother ate fish | 2356 | +0.166 [−0.064, +0.396] | 0.158 |
| Communication | |||
| All children | 2723 | +0.089 [−0.012, +0.191] | 0.085 |
| Mother didn’t eat fish | 354 | −0.278 [−0.692, +0.136] | 0.187 |
| Mother ate fish | 2356 | +0.089 [−0.018, +0.196] | 0.104 |
| Gross motor | |||
| All children | 2730 | −0.018 [−0.195, +0.159] | 0.845 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 355 | −0.286 [−1.025, +0.452] | 0.446 |
| Mother ate fish | 2361 | +0.040 [−0.145, +0.225] | 0.670 |
| Development scores at 18 months: | |||
| Social achievement score | |||
| All children | 2649 | +0.121 [−0.019, +0.261] | 0.090 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 337 | +0.199 [−0.290, +0.689] | 0.423 |
| Mother ate fish | 2300 | +0.087 [−0.063, +0.238] | 0.255 |
| Fine motor score | |||
| All children | 2649 | +0.131 [+0.018,+0.244] | 0.023 |
| Mother didn’t eat fish | 337 | +0.419 [+0.024,+0.814] | 0.038 |
| Mother ate fish | 2300 | +0.119 [−0.003, +0.240] | 0.055 |
| Communication score | |||
| All children | 2650 | +0.170 [−0.003, +0.344] | 0.054 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 338 | +0.183 [−0.423, +0.790] | 0.553 |
| Mother ate fish | 2300 | +0.139 [−0.047, +0.326] | 0.144 |
| Gross motor score | |||
| All children | 2644 | +0.064 [−0.044, +0.171] | 0.246 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 338 | +0.146 [−0.229, +0.522] | 0.444 |
| Mother ate fish | 2294 | +0.046 [−0.069, +0.160] | 0.432 |
| Development scores at 30 months: | |||
| Social achievement score | |||
| All children | 2457 | +0.105 [−0.035, +0.246] | 0.142 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 318 | +0.305 [−0.168, +0.778] | 0.205 |
| Mother ate fish | 2128 | +0.055 [−0.097, +0.206] | 0.481 |
| Fine motor score | |||
| All children | 2464 | +0.083 [−0.064, +0.230] | 0.267 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 320 | +0.141 [−0.371, +0.652] | 0.589 |
| Mother ate fish | 2133 | +0.071 [−0.088, +0.230] | 0.379 |
| Gross motor score | |||
| All children | 2461 | +0.049 [−0.052, +0.150] | 0.342 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 319 | +0.162 [−0.182, +0.507] | 0.355 |
| Mother ate fish | 2131 | +0.056 [−0.053, +0.165] | 0.318 |
| Development scores at 42 months: | |||
| Social development score | |||
| All children | 2394 | +0.180 [+0.056,+0.304] | 0.004 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 311 | +0.205 [−0.269, +0.678] | 0.396 |
| Mother ate fish | 2073 | +0.170 [+0.037,+0.303] | 0.012 |
| Fine motor score | |||
| All children | 2397 | +0.136 [−0.020, +0.293] | 0.088 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 312 | +0.139 [−0.491, +0.769] | 0.664 |
| Mother ate fish | 2075 | +0.106 [−0.060, +0.273] | 0.210 |
| Gross motor score | |||
| All children | 2401 | +0.119 [−0.028, +0.267] | 0.113 |
| Mother did not eat fish | 314 | +0.843 [+0.267,+1.419] | 0.004 |
| Mother ate fish | 2077 | +0.037 [−0.121, +0.195] | 0.645 |