Maternal folate levels during pregnancy and children’s neuropsychological development at 2 years of age

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 74; no. 11; pp. 1585 - 1593
• Main Authors: Huang, Xiangyuan, Ye, Ying, Li, Yun, Zhang, Ying, Zhang, Yi, Jiang, Yuan, Chen, Xiaotian, Wang, Liuhui, Yan, Weili
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-11-2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/700/1720; 692/700/2814; Age; Child development; Children; Clinical Nutrition; Epidemiology; Erythrocytes; Folic acid; Gestation; Health aspects; Internal Medicine; Language; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Neuropsychology; Pediatric research; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Prenatal influences; Public Health; Quotients; Regression analysis; Regression models; Social behavior; Supplements; Vitamin B; China
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/s41430-020-0612-9

Objective
To explore the relationship between maternal folate levels during pregnancy and children’s neuropsychological development at 2 years of age.
Methods
In the birth cohort MKFOAD, maternal serum folate concentrations at 12–14, 22–26, and 34–36 weeks of gestation were measured, as well as red blood cell (RBC) folate at 12–14 weeks. Neurodevelopment of 2-year-old children was assessed by Gesell Development Scale (GDS), which contained subscales of gross motor, fine motor, language, adaptive behavior, and social behavior. Linear regression models were applied to investigate the association of maternal folate levels with children’s developmental quotients (DQs).
Results
One hundred and eighty singleton children participated the GDS assessment, of whom 97 (53.9%) were boys. Median RBC folate concentration was 1002.8 (IQR = 577.6) nmol L
−1
in early pregnancy and median serum folate concentrations were, respectively, 33.9 (IQR = 9.2) nmol L
−1
, 26.3 (IQR = 14.3) nmol L
−1
, and 26.7 (IQR = 18.9) nmol L
−1
. Maternal serum folate concentration in late pregnancy was significantly associated with children’s language development, where language DQ increases by 3.1 (95% CI 0.6, 5.5) for every 10 nmol L
−1
increment of serum folate concentration. And maternal serum folate in early pregnancy was significantly associated with children’s fine motor development, with 2.0 (95% CI 0.1, 4.0) DQ decrease for 10 nmol L
−1
increase of serum folate.
Conclusions
Maternal serum folate in late pregnancy was significantly associated with children’s language development at age 2, which supports the importance of remaining folic acid supplementation across the entire gestation. However, maternal serum folate in early pregnancy was also inversely associated with children’s fine motor development.