Prenatal and Childhood Smoke Exposure Associations with Cognition, Language, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationships of prenatal and childhood smoke exposure with specific neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems during early childhood.

Study design: A subsample (n = 386) of mother-child dyads from the Newborn Epigenetic Study (NEST) prebirth cohort participated in the study. Cotinine concentrations were used to objectively measure prenatal and childhood smoke exposure when youth were aged 3-13 years. Multivariable regression models were used to estimate associations of prenatal and childhood cotinine concentrations with performance on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and behavioral symptoms, measured using the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd edition (BASC-2).

Results: After adjusting for confounders, childhood cotinine concentrations were associated with poorer cognitive performance on tasks measuring cognitive flexibility (B = -1.29; P = .03), episodic memory (B = -0.97; P = .02), receptive language development (B = -0.58; P = .01), and inhibitory control and attention (B = -1.59; P = .006). Although childhood cotinine concentration was associated with higher levels of attention problems (B = 0.83; P = .004) on the BASC-2, after adjustment for confounders, the association is nonsignificant. Although associations for maternal cotinine concentrations were null, an interaction was detected between prenatal and childhood cotinine concentrations on the NIH Toolbox Picture Vocabulary Task (P = .02).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that childhood tobacco smoke exposure may lead to poorer attention regulation and language acquisition, complex visual processing ability, and attention problems.

Keywords: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; cotinine; neurodevelopment; tobacco.