ArticlePaediatric and perinatal epidemiology2022
Maternal early-pregnancy ferritin and offspring neurodevelopment: A prospective cohort study from gestation to school age.
Article in Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Effects of Prenatal Iron Supplementation on Offspring Neurodevelopment in Upper Middle- or High-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- An Evaluation of Food and Nutrient Intake among Pregnant Women in The Netherlands: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Physiologically based ferritin thresholds to redefine early pregnancy iron screening: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Associations of maternal dietary iron intake during pregnancy with infant neurodevelopment: evidence from a prospective cohort study.Nutrition journal · 2025Article
- Iron and Pregnancy.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Maternal Nutrition during Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development: Insights from Neuroimaging.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Assessing the mediating role of iron status on associations between an industry-relevant metal mixture and verbal learning and memory in Italian adolescents.The Science of the total environment · 2024Article
- Adapting prenatal iron supplementation to maternal needs results in optimal child neurodevelopment: a follow-up of the ECLIPSES Study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- The role of ferritin and iron dextran in exacerbating preeclampsia in an L-NAME-treated rat model.Annals of translational medicine · 2022Article
- Maternal early-pregnancy ferritin and offspring neurodevelopment: A prospective cohort study from gestation to school age.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2022Article
- The role of nutrients in human neurodevelopment and their potential to prevent neurodevelopmental adversity.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundIron plays a role in many key processes in the developing brain. During pregnancy, iron supplementation is widely recommended to prevent and treat iron deficiency; however, the prevalence of iron deficiency and the risk of iron overload vary greatly between populations. Evidence on the role of high levels of maternal ferritin, a storage iron marker during pregnancy in relation to offspring neurodevelopment is lacking.
objectiveOur main objective was to examine if maternal ferritin levels during pregnancy are associated with child cognitive and motor abilities.
methodsWe included Dutch mother-child dyads from the prospective population-based Generation R Study, born in 2002-2006. We compared children whose mothers had high (standard deviation score >+1) or low (standard deviation score <-1) early-pregnancy ferritin to children whose mothers had intermediate ferritin (reference group) using linear regression. Children underwent non-verbal intelligence and language tests at 4-9 years (cognitive abilities), finger-tapping and balancing tests at 8-12 years (motor abilities), and structural magnetic resonance imaging at 8-12 years (brain morphology). Covariates were child age, sex, maternal intelligence quotient estimate, age, body-mass-index, education, parity, smoking and alcohol use.
resultsOf the 2479 mother-child dyads with data on maternal ferritin and at least one child neurodevelopmental outcome, 387 mothers had low (mean = 20.6 µg/L), 1700 intermediate (mean = 64.6 µg/L) and 392 high (mean = 170.3 µg/L) early-pregnancy ferritin. High maternal ferritin was associated with 2.54 points (95% confidence interval -4.16, -0.92) lower child intelligence quotient and 16.02 cm
conclusionHigh maternal ferritin during pregnancy was associated with poorer child cognitive abilities and smaller brain volume. Maternal iron status during pregnancy may be associated with offspring neurodevelopment.
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