Table 3:
Neuropsychological outcomes associated with a 10-fold increase in maternal serum TCDD levels estimated at the time of pregnancy (Log10TCDD), stratified by child sex, Seveso Second Generation Health Study, Seveso Italy 2014–2016
| Outcome | Direction of poorer performancec | All children n=161 adj-βa 95% CI |
Girls n=79 adj-βa (95% CI) |
Boys n=82 adj-βa (95% CI) |
pint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) | |||||
| Total errors T-score | (−) | −0.13 (−3.52, 3.26) | 1.02 (−4.19, 6.22) | −2.51 (−6.95, 1.92) | 0.56 |
| Trials to complete first set | (+) | 0.56 (−3.77, 4.89) | −1.91 (−7.60, 3.78) | 3.00 (−3.71, 9.71) | 0.40 |
| Perseverative errors T-score | (−) | 0.95 (−3.70, 5.59) | 1.91 (−5.30, 9.12) | −1.67 (−8.25, 4.91) | 0.60 |
| Non-perseverative errors T-score | (−) | −0.48 (−3.75, 2.80) | 0.04 (−4.24, 4.33) | −2.04 (−6.49, 2.42) | 0.60 |
| Connor’s Continuous Performance Test (CPT)b | |||||
| Commission errors T-score | (+) | −1.52 (−4.80, 1.76) | −1.97 (−6.80, 2.86) | −0.66 (−5.58, 4.25) | 0.82 |
| Omission errors T-score | (+) | 0.06 (−2.47, 2.58) | 0.61 (−3.49, 4.72) | 0.87 (−1.94, 3.68) | 0.95 |
| Hit rate SE overall T-score | (+) | 2.47 (−0.49, 5.43) | 3.26 (−1.72, 8.25) | 2.87 (−0.41, 6.15) | 0.84 |
| Hit rate SE between sets T-score | (+) | 1.07 (−2.27, 4.42) | 0.84 (−4.31, 5.99) | 2.47 (−2.03, 6.97) | 0.63 |
| ADHD confidence index | (+) | 3.92 (−1.17, 9.01) | 6.60 (−1.93, 15.12) | 3.50 (−1.94, 8.94) | 0.49 |
| Rey’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) | |||||
| Immediate recall | (−) | 1.02 (−0.65, 2.68) | 0.10 (−2.56, 2.75) | 1.66 (−0.55, 3.87) | 0.58 |
| Delayed recall | (−) | 0.46 (−0.19, 1.12) | 0.02 (−0.93, 0.96) | 0.81 (−0.18, 1.79) | 0.49 |
| Ravens Progressive Matrices (RPM) | |||||
| Total correct | (−) | −1.95 (−4.02, 0.11) | −2.86 (−5.81, 0.10) | −2.02 (−5.23, 1.20) | 0.50 |
a
Adjusted for child age at assessment, maternal age at pregnancy, highest level of education in household, maternal shortened Ravens score, total parity, and child sex. Child sex was removed from sex-stratified models.
b
Excluding child with apparent non-effort or computer malfunction during assessment
c
(+) higher scores indicate poorer performance on test, (−) lower scores indicate poorer performance on test
*
p<0.05