Nonlinear decline in the association between birth weight and cognitive ability from infancy to midlife in a community sample of twins

Sophie A Bell, Sean R Womack, Alyssa Kam, Molly Gonenne, Christopher R Beam, Evan J Giangrande, Deborah Finkel, Eric Turkheimer and Deborah W Davis

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2026, vol. 81, issue 2, gbaf247.

Abstract: ObjectivesBirth weight is a widely used indicator of prenatal experiences in models of the developmental origins of cognitive ability across the lifespan. This study aimed to examine the association between birth weight and cognitive ability using a community sample of twins followed prospectively from infancy to midlife. We leveraged the twin study design to identify phenotypic and biometric associations between the two constructs.MethodsThe sample consisted of 1,501 participants (387 dizygotic pairs, 360 monozygotic pairs, and 7 singletons; 53.1% female; 91.1% White) from the Louisville Twin Study. We modeled the change in the strength of the association between birth weight and cognitive ability using exponential decay functions.ResultsThe magnitude of the association between birth weight and cognitive ability declined exponentially from infancy (β = .59, p

Keywords: Cognitive development; Prenatal exposure; Lifespan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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