Executive Function After Prenatal Alcohol Exposure in Children in a South African Population: Cross-sectional Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Alcohol is a teratogen; its consumption during pregnancy can lead to negative birth outcomes, collectively referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Neurodevelopmental delays in higher-order cognitive functions that affect development of executive functions are a common feature. Studies on executive function in children have focused on children diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and there is a lack of information on the impact on children not diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder but who had been exposed to alcohol. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the development of executive function in children between 4 and 6 years of age with and without prenatal exposure to alcohol. METHODS: Children both exposed and not exposed to alcohol were recruited as part of a feasibility RCT evaluating a computer-based cognitive training program for improving executive function development. The study was conducted in a low-socioeconomic status community in South Africa with a high prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Neurodevelopment was assessed in participating children; NEPSY-II standardized scores for executive function domains were compared using a multivariate analysis of variance with group membership as the predictor variable. RESULTS: No significant differences in executive functions assessments (P=.39) were found between children in the alcohol-exposed group (n=76) and those in the nonexposed group (n=40). Both groups showed moderate to severe delays in domains. In all but one subtest, the average score for both groups was below the 25th percentile of expected norms. CONCLUSIONS: We expected that alcohol exposure would have a measurable impact on executive function development. The lack of differences highlights the prevalence of developmental delays in low-socioeconomic status communities in South Africa and suggests that children are exposed to various threats to cognitive development. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/14489.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".