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Cognitive development of Yu-Cheng ("oil disease") children prenatally exposed to heat-degraded PCBs.
- Source :
-
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association . 12/9/92, Vol. 268 Issue 22, p3213-3218. 6p. - Publication Year :
- 1992
-
Abstract
- <bold>Objective: </bold>To compare the cognitive development in Taiwanese children who had been exposed prenatally to high levels of heat-degraded polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) with control children who were exposed to background levels. The disorder was called Yu-Cheng, "oil disease," in Taiwan.<bold>Design: </bold>Matched-pair cohort study.<bold>Setting: </bold>Communities in central Taiwan in which there had been a cooking-oil contamination and mass poisoning by heat-degraded PCBs in 1978 through 1979.<bold>Participants: </bold>One hundred eighteen children born between June 1978 and March 1985 during or after their mothers' consumption of contaminated rice oil; 118 children matched for age, sex, neighborhood, maternal age, and parental education and occupational class; and 15 older siblings of exposed children, born before the poisoning.<bold>Main Outcome Measures: </bold>Cognitive development measured from 1985 through 1990 using the Chinese versions of the Stanford-Binet test and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised,<bold>Results: </bold>The exposed children scored approximately 5 points lower on the Stanford-Binet test at the ages of 4 and 5 years and approximately 5 points lower on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised, at the ages of 6 and 7 years. Children born up to 6 years after their mothers' exposure were as affected as children born within a year or two after exposure when examined at 6 and 7 years of age. Older siblings resembled the control children.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Children prenatally exposed to heat-degraded PCBs had poorer cognitive development than their matched controls. The effect persisted in the children up to the age of 7 years, and children born long after the exposure were still affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00987484
- Volume :
- 268
- Issue :
- 22
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 119390164
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.268.22.3213