Influence of Respiratory Tract Infections on Vocabulary Growth in Relation to Child’s Sex: The STEPS Study

Annette Nylund (), Laura Toivonen, Pirjo Korpilahti, Anne Kaljonen, Viveka Lyberg Åhlander, Ville Peltola and Pirkko Rautakoski
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Annette Nylund: Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Abo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Laura Toivonen: Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, 20521 Turku, Finland
Pirjo Korpilahti: Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland
Anne Kaljonen: Statistics of the STEPS Study (Steps to the Healthy Development and Well-Being of Children), University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland
Viveka Lyberg Åhlander: Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Abo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Ville Peltola: Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, 20521 Turku, Finland
Pirkko Rautakoski: Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Abo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: Common health issues have been less examined in studies of early language development, particularly in relation to the child’s sex. Respiratory tract infections, often complicated by acute otitis media, are common in children during the first years of life, when early vocabulary development takes place. The present study, conducted in Finland, aimed to investigate whether possible associations between recurrent respiratory tract infections, background factors, and vocabulary growth differ in boys and girls aged 13 to 24 months. The participants ( N = 462, 248 boys and 214 girls) were followed for respiratory tract infections and acute otitis media from 0 to 23 months of age. The parents completed daily symptom diaries of respiratory symptoms, physician visits, and diagnoses. The expressive vocabulary was measured with parental reports. We found that recurrent respiratory tract infections were not associated with slower vocabulary development in boys or girls. In fact, boys with recurrent respiratory tract infections had more vocabulary growth during the second year than boys who were less sick. We found that vocabulary growth was associated differently with respiratory tract infections and background factors as a function of the child’s sex. The vocabulary growth of boys seems to be more influenced by environmental factors than that of girls.

Keywords: acute otitis media; child’s sex; language development; MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory; respiratory tract infections; vocabulary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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