Early features associated with the neurocognitive development at 36 months of age: the AuBE study

TL;DR

This study identifies early sleep and caregiving factors that influence cognitive development in 3-year-old children, highlighting potential targets for early intervention to support optimal neurocognitive outcomes.

Contribution

It is the first to link specific early sleep patterns and caregiving arrangements with intelligence scores in preschoolers from a general population.

Findings

Watching TV ≥1 hour/day at 24 months negatively affects IQ.

Night waking and snoring at specific ages are associated with lower performance IQ.

Collective care arrangement positively influences IQ scores.

Abstract

Background. Few studies on the relations between sleep quantity and/or quality and cognition were conducted among pre-schoolers from healthy general population. We aimed at identifying, among 3 years old children, early factors associated with intelligence quotient estimated through Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale Intelligence-III test and its indicators: full-scale-, verbal- and performance-intelligence quotients and their sub-scale scores. Methods. We included 194 children from the French birth-cohort AuBE with both available Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale Intelligence-III scores at 3y and sleep data. Information was collected through self-questionnaires at birth, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. A day/night sleep ratio was calculated. Results. Mean scores were in normal ranges for verbal-, performance- and full-scale-intelligence quotients. In multivariate models, being a $\ge$3 born-child and watching television $\ge$1 hour/day at 24 months were negatively associated with all intelligence quotient scores while collective care arrangement was positively associated. Night waking at 6 and frequent snoring at 18 months were negatively associated with performance intelligence quotient, some subscales and full-scale-intelligence quotient contrary to day/night sleep ratio at 12 months. No association was observed between early sleep characteristics and verbal intelligence quotient. Conclusion. We showed that early features including infant sleep characteristics influence intelligence quotient scores at 3 years old. Some of these may be accessible to prevention.