Moderate amounts do not cause behavioral problems or obesity.
Women who consume moderate amounts of caffeine while pregnant can be reassured that available evidence does not indicate harm to their child’s intelligence or increased behavioral problems, according to research from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. This study is among the first to examine the relationship between in utero caffeine exposure and a child’s later IQ and behavior, and it found no consistent link between maternal caffeine exposure during pregnancy and reduced intelligence or persistent behavioral difficulties in children at ages 4 and 7.
“We did not find evidence of an adverse association of maternal pregnancy caffeine consumption with child cognition or behavior at 4 or 7 years of age,” said Mark A. Klebanoff, MD, principal investigator in the Center for Perinatal Research at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s and faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
The investigators analyzed blood samples from 2,197 pregnant women who participated in the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a multi-site U.S. study conducted between 1959 and 1974. Because coffee and other caffeinated beverages were more commonly consumed during that era and there were fewer concerns about caffeine safety, the dataset allowed researchers to assess a broader range of maternal caffeine exposure than most modern cohorts could provide.
Rather than rely on self-reported intake alone, researchers measured paraxanthine, the primary metabolite of caffeine, in maternal serum at two points in pregnancy: before 20 weeks and at or after 26 weeks’ gestation. They then compared those measured levels with standardized assessments of the children’s intelligence quotient (IQ) and problem behaviors at ages 4 and 7.
Overall, the study did not identify consistent or meaningful associations between maternal paraxanthine concentrations and child cognitive outcomes or behavioral problems. One finding noted an inverted-J-shaped relationship between paraxanthine measured at ≥26 weeks and child IQ at age 7, with a small peak difference compared with undetectable levels followed by a slight decrease at higher concentrations. Another isolated result linked higher paraxanthine measured at <20 weeks with a modest increase in internalizing behavior at age 4, but this was not part of a larger pattern across the many outcomes examined. Most comparisons did not approach statistical significance.
The same research team previously reported on caffeine and childhood obesity using the same Collaborative Perinatal Project cohort. In a study published in Epidemiology in March 2015, Klebanoff and co-author Sarah Keim, PhD, found that higher maternal caffeine consumption during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of obesity in childhood. In the cohort analyzed, approximately 11 percent of children were classified as obese at age 4 and about 7 percent at age 7, but those outcomes did not correlate with maternal caffeine intake.
“Taken as a whole, we consider our results to be reassuring for pregnant women who consume moderate amounts of caffeine or the equivalent of one or two cups of coffee per day,” said Dr. Keim, principal investigator in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s and faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Source: Danielle Warner – Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Image Credit: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Abstract for “Maternal Caffeine Intake During Pregnancy and Child Cognition and Behavior at 4 and 7 Years of Age” by Klebanoff, M. A. and Keim, S. A. in American Journal of Epidemiology. Published online November 18, 2015. doi:10.1093/aje/kwv136
Abstract
Maternal Caffeine Intake During Pregnancy and Child Cognition and Behavior at 4 and 7 Years of Age
Caffeine is commonly consumed by pregnant women, yet relatively few studies have examined whether in utero exposure affects offspring cognition or behavior. This analysis evaluated maternal serum paraxanthine, caffeine’s main metabolite, measured at under 20 weeks and at or after 26 weeks’ gestation, and related those measurements to children’s IQ and behavior at ages 4 and 7 among 2,197 mother–child pairs drawn from the Collaborative Perinatal Project (multiple U.S. sites, 1959–1974). The mothers were controls from a nested case-control study of caffeine metabolites and spontaneous abortion. Associations of paraxanthine with mean IQ were estimated using linear regression, adjusting for maternal age, race, education, smoking, prepregnancy weight, gestational age at blood draw, and child sex. Associations with behavior problems were evaluated with logistic regression. Paraxanthine at ≥26 weeks showed an inverted-J-shaped association with IQ at age 7, with a small peak difference versus undetectable levels and a slight decline at higher concentrations. Paraxanthine at <20 weeks was linearly associated with internalizing behavior at age 4 for a 500 µg/L increase (odds ratio = 1.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 1.5). Most of the other comparisons were not statistically significant. Across a range of values seen in typical pregnancy, there was no meaningful association between serum paraxanthine level and childhood IQ or problem behaviors.
“Maternal Caffeine Intake During Pregnancy and Child Cognition and Behavior at 4 and 7 Years of Age” by Klebanoff, M. A. and Keim, S. A. in American Journal of Epidemiology. Published online November 18, 2015. doi:10.1093/aje/kwv136