Relationship between Apgar scores and long-term cognitive outcomes in individuals with Down syndrome

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Laura del Hoyo Soriano, University of California Davis; Jennifer Rosser, Emory University; Debra R Hamilton, Emory University; Danielle J Harvey, University of California Davis; Leonard Abbeduto, University of California Davis; Stephanie Sherman, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06-16
• Publisher: NATURE RESEARCH
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2021
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90651-3
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 12707
• End Page: 12707
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was funded primarily by the LuMind IDSC Foundation. Additional support was provided by NIH Grants P50HD103526, P30HD03352, and U54HD090256.
• Keywords: ACQUISITION; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; Science & Technology - Other Topics; BIRTH-WEIGHT; RISK; TEST BATTERY; LANGUAGE-DEVELOPMENT; ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER; NEURODEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES; Science & Technology; PRETERM; Multidisciplinary Sciences; CHILDREN BORN
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Mental Health

Abstract

This study examined the contribution of the Apgar score at 1 and 5 min after birth to later cognitive functioning in 168 individuals with Down syndrome who were between 6 and 25 years of age at time of cognitive testing. Our results showed that a lower Apgar score at 1 min was related to a worse performance in later cognitive measures of receptive vocabulary, verbal comprehension and production, visual memory and working memory. Results also showed that a lower Apgar score at 5 min was only related to worse later outcomes of verbal comprehension and production and auditory working memory. Our findings suggest a need for future studies investigating how specific perinatal events reflected in the Apgar score are linked to later cognitive functioning in individuals with Down syndrome.