The Association between Maternal Age and Cerebral Palsy Risk Factors

Publication date: Available online 12 February 2018
Source:Pediatric Neurology
Author(s): Rilla E. Schneider, Pamela Ng, Xun Zhang, John Andersen, David Buckley, Darcy Fehlings, Adam Kirton, Ellen Wood, Esias van Rensburg, Michael I. Shevell, Maryam Oskoui
BackgroundAdvanced maternal age is associated with higher frequencies of antenatal and perinatal conditions, as well as a higher risk of cerebral palsy (CP) in offspring. We explore the association between maternal age and specific CP risk factors.MethodsData was extracted from the Canadian CP Registry. Maternal age was categorized as ≥35 years of age and <20 years of age at the time of birth. Chi-square and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to calculate odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsThe final sample consisted of 1391 children with CP, with 19% of children having mothers aged 35 or older and 4% of children having mothers below the age of 20. Univariate analyses showed that mothers aged 35 or older were more likely to have gestational diabetes (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.8), a history of miscarriage (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.4), underwent fertility treatments (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.5 to 3.9), and delivered by Cesarean (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.2). This was supported by multivariate analyses. Children with mothers below the age of 20 were more likely to have a congenital malformation (OR 2.4 95% CI 1.4 to 4.2), also supported by multivariate analysis.ConclusionsThe risk factor profiles of children with CP vary by maternal age. Future studies are warranted to further our understanding of the compound causal pathways leading to CP and the observed greater prevalence of cerebral palsy with increasing maternal age.



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