Table 3.
Summary results of meta-analysis of associations of child factors and cognitive, motor and language developments, standardised scores
| Risk factor | Cognitive | Motor | Language | |||||||||
| No of studies | Adjusted* SMD (95% CI) |
P value | I† (%) | No of studies | Adjusted* SMD (95% CI) |
P value | I† (%) | No of studies | Adjusted* SMD (95% CI) |
P value | I† (%) | |
| Birth weight (g) | ||||||||||||
| Normal (≥2500 g) | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| Low (<2500 g) | 14 | −0.13 (−0.20 to −0.07) | <0.01 | 51.0 | 15 | −0.14 (−0.23 to −0.06) | <0.01 | 66.5 | 5 | −0.11 (−0.22 to 0.00) | 0.12 | 74.6 |
| Moderate low (2000–2500 g) | 14 | −0.07 (−0.12 to −0.03) | <0.01 | 17.2 | 15 | −0.11 (−0.20 to −0.02) | 0.03 | 64.0 | 5 | −0.05 (−0.10 to 0.01) | 0.20 | 29.6 |
| Very low (<2000 g) | 14 | −0.27 (−0.49 to −0.07) | 0.02 | 74.0 | 13 | −0.26 (−0.40 to −0.12) | <0.01 | 74.9 | 5 | −0.28 (−0.60 to 0.05) | 0.17 | 81.1 |
| Gestational age (g)† | ||||||||||||
| Term (≥37 weeks) | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| Late preterm (34–37 weeks) | 8 | −0.21 (−0.39 to −0.04) | 0.04 | 69.8 | 8 | −0.14 (−0.33 to 0.04) | 0.17 | 74.5 | 5 | −0.05 (−0.23 to 0.13) | 0.64 | 72.1 |
| Early preterm (<34 weeks) | 8 | −0.16 (−0.34 to 0.31) | 0.15 | 53.5 | 7 | −0.26 (−0.53 to 0.006) | 0.10 | 65.0 | 4 | −0.20 (−0.55 to 0.15) | 0.35 | 75.4 |
| Size for gestational age‡ | ||||||||||||
| AGA (≥10 percentile) | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| Moderate SGA (3–<10 percentile) | 8 | −0.05 (−0.11 to 0.12) | 0.16 | 0.0 | 9 | −0.01 (−0.10 to 0.07) | 0.77 | 36.6 | 4 | −0.06 (−0.18 to 0.06) | 0.40 | 29.4 |
| Severe SGA (<3 percentile) | 8 | −0.09 (−0.24 to 0.07) | 0.30 | 72.0 | 9 | 0.02 (−0.09 to 0.12) | 0.78 | 37.4 | 4 | 0.03 (−0.13 to 0.19) | 0.73 | 37.7 |
| Gestational age and size for gestational age | ||||||||||||
| Term-AGA | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| Preterm-AGA | 8 | −0.14 (−0.24 to −0.05) | 0.02 | 17.0 | 9 | −0.23 (−0.42 to −0.03) | 0.05 | 76.5 | 4 | −0.02 (−0.23 to 0.19) | 0.87 | 78.0 |
| Term-SGA | 8 | −0.02 (−0.10 to 0.06) | 0.66 | 44.6 | 9 | −0.007 (−0.08 to 0.06) | 0.84 | 31.4 | 4 | −0.03 (−0.12 to 0.06) | 0.55 | 9.3 |
| Preterm-SGA | 5 | −0.17 (−0.29 to −0.05) | 0.05 | 0.0 | 5 | −0.15 (−0.40 to 0.09) | 0.29 | 53.1 | 3 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Exclusive breast feeding | ||||||||||||
| Yes | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| No | 4 | −0.02 (−0.08 to 0.04) | 0.60 | 0.0 | 4 | −0.05 (−0.13 to 0.04) | 0.36 | 16.4 | 3 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Child haemoglobin level (g/L) | ||||||||||||
| Normal (≥110 g/L) | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| Mild anaemia (100–109 g/L) | 9 | −0.06 (−0.13 to 0.01) | 0.14 | 27.7 | 9 | −0.03 (−0.13 to 0.07) | 0.54 | 51.2 | 3 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Moderate anaemia (70–99 g/L) | 9 | −0.11 (−0.12 to −0.10) | <0.01 | 0.0 | 9 | −0.18 (−0.28 to −0.09) | <0.01 | 49.0 | 3 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Access to clean water | ||||||||||||
| Yes | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| No | 8 | −0.10 (−0.12 to −0.09) | <0.01 | 0.0 | 8 | −0.07 (−0.16 to 0.01) | 0.14 | 71.0 | 4 | −0.15 (−0.35 to 0.05) | 0.23 | 82.5 |
| Access to sanitation | ||||||||||||
| Yes | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
| No | 8 | −0.13 (−0.18 to −0.07) | <0.01 | 47.5 | 8 | −0.10 (−0.19 to -0.01) | 0.05 | 82.8 | 4 | −0.12 (−0.27 to 0.03) | 0.21 | 92.4 |
| Diarrhoea | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 5 | −0.02 (−0.16 to 0.13) | 0.84 | 66.8 | 5 | −0.02 (−0.14 to 0.09) | 0.71 | 62.8 | 2 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| No | Reference | Reference | Reference | |||||||||
*Adjusted for child’s gender and age, mother’s education and household wealth.
†Adjusted for small for gestational age.
‡Adjusted for gestational age.
AGA, appropriate for gestational ageSGA, small for gestational age; SMD, standardised mean difference.