Developmental disorders in children born to women with sickle cell disease: A report from the Boston Birth Cohort

Martha Brucato; Eboni Lance; Sophie Lanzkron; Xiaobin Wang; Lydia H Pecker

doi:10.1002/jha2.478

Developmental disorders in children born to women with sickle cell disease: A report from the Boston Birth Cohort

EJHaem. 2022 Jun 8;3(3):894-898. doi: 10.1002/jha2.478. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Martha Brucato¹, Eboni Lance², Sophie Lanzkron³, Xiaobin Wang⁴, Lydia H Pecker³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore Maryland USA.
² Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore Maryland USA.
³ Division of Hematology Department of Medicine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore Maryland USA.
⁴ The Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore Maryland USA.

Abstract

Children exposed to maternal sickle cell disease (SCD) have many theoretical risks for developmental disorders, but little is known about long-term outcomes for these children. We used the Boston Birth Cohort to compare developmental outcomes between children exposed to maternal SCD and matched, unexposed controls. Children with exposure to maternal SCD had increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (OR 5.12, 95% CI 1.36-19.19, p = 0.02) and obesity (OR 2.74, 95% CI 1.10-6.87, p = 0.03). In utero and/or environmental exposures may help explain these findings. Further studies of outcomes of children born to women with SCD are needed.