Poster #67 - Language development in childhood and risk of psychiatric disorders in adulthood

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Background: When Danish children leave kindergarten, there is a 2-year difference in the vocabulary of children in the group with the weakest performance compared to the average group (Blesses et al 2016). Short-term effects of delayed language development include poorer school performance and emotional difficulties at school-age (Golinkoff et al 2019). However, there may also be long-term consequences, and an increased risk of mental health problems has been reported among individuals with language disorders or with temporary or permanent hearing loss (Dammeyer & Chapman 2017, Herzog et al 2020). Proposed mechanisms linking language development and psychiatric disorders include 1) a biological hypothesis suggesting that neurodevelopmental impairment could be a common cause and 2) that delayed language development affect socialization and thereby affect the risk of developing psychiatric disorders.

Aim: To investigate the association between childhood language development and the risk of developing psychiatric disorders in adulthood in a large, representative birth cohort with more than 50 years of follow-up time.

Methods: The study was based on the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort (CPC) consisting of 9125 consecutive deliveries at the Copenhagen University Hospital from 1959-61. The study population consisted of 3617 individuals from CPC who had participated in a 3-year follow-up examination and had data on language development. Language development was assessed at the 3-year follow-up by interviewing the mother on the child’s age at attaining five different language milestones (see Figure 1). Psychiatric disorders: Information on in- or outpatient hospital discharge diagnoses was obtained through linkage with the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register and the Danish National Patient Registry for the period from 1969 through 2017. Three groups of psychiatric disorders were defined: schizophrenia, depression, and other psychiatric disorders (OPD). Statistical analysis: The association between age of attainment of language milestones and psychiatric disorders was examined using a general linear model adjusted for age at follow-up examination, parity, birth weight, gestational age, parental age, smoking status, parental social status, and single mother status. All analyses were stratified by sex due to interaction between language development and sex.

Results: Women who later developed depression had a significantly higher mean age when attaining three out of five language milestones compared to women with no psychiatric disorders. Among women who developed OPD, the mean age was significantly higher for all five language milestones. Men who later developed OPD had attained two out of five language milestones significantly later compared to men with no psychiatric disorders. For both men and women, there were no significant differences in the age of attaining the language milestones for those who were later diagnosed with schizophrenia compared with those who did not develop a psychiatric disorder.

Conclusion: Significant associations were found between age of attaining language milestones and psychiatric disorders in adulthood. As language development is a modifiable factor in early life, the results thus suggest that early intervention may play an important role in the prevention of psychiatric disorders.

Authors

• Gunhild Tidemann Okholm, University of Copenhagen
  Presenting Author

• Frederik Palmgren Kjaer, University of Copenhagen

• Cathrine Lawaetz Wimmelmann, University of Copenhagen

• Farima Khorami, University of Copenhagen

• Signe Boe Rayce, VIVE - The Danish Center for Social Science Research

• Erik Lykke Mortensen, University of Copenhagen

• Trine Flensborg-Madsen, University of Copenhagen