ArticlePloS one2013
Early life origins cognitive decline: findings in elderly men in the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of Birth Size with Physical and Cognitive Function in Men and Women 60 Years and Older-Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Do prenatal factors shape the risk for dementia?: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence for the prenatal origins of dementia.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- Head circumference and intelligence, schooling, employment, and income: a systematic review.BMC pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- The Association Between High Birth Weight and Long-Term Outcomes-Implications for Assisted Reproductive Technologies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Size at birth and cognitive ability in late life: A systematic review.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Influence of aerobic exercise on maternal lipid levels and offspring morphometrics.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2019Trial
- Considering Litter Effects in Preclinical Research: Evidence from E17.5 Acid-Sensing Ion Channel 2a Knockout Mice Exposed to Acute Seizures.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Guidelines for in vivo models of developmental programming of cardiovascular disease risk.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2024Review
- Exposure to the Dutch Famine in Early Gestation and Cognitive Function and Decline in Older Age.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Cerebrovascular Variants and the Role of the Selfish Brain in Young-Onset Hypertension.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2022Article
- Are Brain and Cognitive Reserve Shaped by Early Life Circumstances?Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Perinatal Micro-Bleeds and Neuroinflammation in E19 Rat Fetuses Exposed to Utero-Placental Ischemia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Article
- Head circumference and child ADHD symptoms and cognitive functioning: results from a large population-based cohort study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2019Article
- In the Long Run: Physical Activity in Early Life and Cognitive Aging.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Review
- Maternal Nutrition and Offspring Stress Response-Implications for Future Development of Non-Communicable Disease: A Perspective From India.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
- Observational
- Mouse maternal protein restriction during preimplantation alone permanently alters brain neuron proportion and adult short-term memory.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Migration and cognitive function: a conceptual framework for Global Health Research.Global health research and policy · 2018Review
- Intellectual ability in young adulthood as an antecedent of physical functioning in older age.Age and ageing · 2016Article
- Association between Exposure to the Chinese Famine in Different Stages of Early Life and Decline in Cognitive Functioning in Adulthood.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo examine whether the adverse effects of slow prenatal and postnatal growth on cognitive function persist to old age and predict age related cognitive decline. DESIGN AND
settingA longitudinal birth cohort study of men born in Helsinki, Finland 1934-44.
participantsNine-hundred-thirty-one men of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, with detailed data on growth from birth to adulthood, aged 20.1 (SD = 1.4) at the first and 67.9 (SD = 2.5) years at the second cognitive testing.
main outcome measuresThe Finnish Defense Forces Basic Intellectual Ability Test assessed twice over nearly five decades apart.
resultsLower weight, length and head circumference at birth were associated with lower cognitive ability at 67.9 years (1.04-1.55 points lower ability per each standard deviation [SD] unit decrease in body size, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]: 0.05 to 2.72) and with cognitive decline after 20.1 years (0.07-0.11 SD decline over time per each SD decrease in body size, 95%CI:0.00 to 0.19). Men who were born larger were more likely to perform better in the cognitive ability test over time (1.22-1.43 increase in odds to remain in the top relative to the lower two thirds in ability over time per each SD increase in body size, 95%CI:1.04 to 1.79) and were more resilient to cognitive decline after 20.1 years (0.69 to 0.76 decrease in odds to decline from than remain in the top third of ability over time per each SD increase in body size, 95%CI:0.49 to 0.99). Slower growth between birth and two years in weight, height and body mass index was associated with lower cognitive ability at 67.9 years, but not with cognitive decline.
conclusionsPoorer lifetime cognitive ability is predicted by slower growth before and after birth. In predicting resilience to age related cognitive decline, the period before birth seems to be more critical.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.