Maternal Ferritin Levels during Pregnancy and ADHD Symptoms in 4-Year-Old Children: Results from the INMA–INfancia y Medio Ambiente (Environment and Childhood) Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Loreto Santa-Marina, Nerea Lertxundi, Ainara Andiarena, Amaia Irizar, Jordi Sunyer, Amaia Molinuevo, Sabrina Llop, Jordi Julvez, Andrea Beneito, Jesús Ibarluzea, Liher Imaz and Maite Ferrin
Additional contact information
Loreto Santa-Marina: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Nerea Lertxundi: Biodonostia, Epidemiology and Public Health Area, Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development Group, 20014 San Sebastian, Spain
Ainara Andiarena: Biodonostia, Epidemiology and Public Health Area, Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development Group, 20014 San Sebastian, Spain
Amaia Irizar: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Jordi Sunyer: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Amaia Molinuevo: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Sabrina Llop: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Jordi Julvez: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Andrea Beneito: Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO–Universitat Jaume I–Universitat de València, 08003 València, Spain
Jesús Ibarluzea: Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Monforte de Lemos 3–5, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Liher Imaz: Public Health Division of Gipuzkoa, Basque Government, 20013 San Sebastian, Spain
Maite Ferrin: Haringey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Mental Health Trust, London N15 3TH, UK

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Ferritin status during prenatal brain development may influence the risk of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in childhood. We investigated the association of maternal ferritin in pregnancy and ADHD-like symptoms in offspring. A total of 1095 mother-child pairs from three birth cohorts of the INMA Project (Spain) were studied. Maternal plasma ferritin in pregnancy was measured at 11.57 weeks of gestation. Children?s ADHD-like symptoms at ages 4–5 years were assessed using the ADHD Rating Scale-IV. The count model of the zero-inflated Poisson regression model showed a significant inverse association between ferritin (continuous variable) and inattention, ? = ?0.19 (?0.32, ?0.07), for boys. Comparing ferritin level by tertile, significant differences were observed between the first tertile (1.98, 20.92) and the second (20.92, 38.79) and third (38.79, 216.5) (?g/L) tertiles. The number of symptoms was lower for those in the third tertile, ? = ?0.3 (?0.55, ?0.5), and for those in the second one, ? = ?0.37 (?0.6, ?0.14). The model stratification by sex also showed this inverse association for boys only, ? = ?0.21 (?0.34, ?0.08). No associations were found between ferritin level and hyperactivity or total ADHD symptoms. High ferritin levels during pregnancy show a protective association with child inattentive-type ADHD symptoms.

Keywords: ferritin status; pregnancy; ADHD symptoms; childhood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7704/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7704/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7704-:d:432750

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().