Excessive Crying at 3 Months of Age and Behavioural Problems at 4 Years
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JECH Online First, published on February 19, 2015 as 10.1136/jech-2014-204568 Research report J Epidemiol Community Health: first published as 10.1136/jech-2014-204568 on 19 February 2015. Downloaded from Excessive crying at 3 months of age and behavioural problems at 4 years age: a prospective cohort study Iná S Santos,1 Alicia Matijasevich,1,2 Marcelo F Capilheira,1 Luciana Anselmi,1 Fernando C Barros3 1Post-graduate Program in ABSTRACT 4 months and lasting more than 3 h per day, occur- Epidemiology, Department of Background Excessive crying in early infancy has been ring in more than 3 days in any week for 3 weeks Social Medicine, Faculty of 9 Medicine, Federal University of associated with behavioural problems among preschool (rule of three) that is typically known as colic. Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande children from high income countries but studies in low Colic affects between 9% and 12% of infants from do Sul, Brazil income and middle income countries are scarce. community samples.8 Others give less emphasis to 2 Department of Preventive Methods The 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort is a the amount of crying and give relevance to mater- Medicine, School of Medicine, population-based study planned to enrol all live births nal or parental stress due to the child unresponsive- University of São Paulo, São 10 Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil occurring in Pelotas that year and comprises 4231 ness to soothing or to the maternal perception of 11 3Post-graduate Program in children who so far have been followed up at 3, 12, 24, the intensity of crying. Health and Behavior, Catholic 48 and 72 months of age. Several familial, maternal and Negative consequences of excessive crying on University of Pelotas, Pelotas, child characteristics were gathered in every follow-up. At maternal and child health have been described: it is Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil – the 3-month follow-up, infants whose mothers perceived associated with early weaning from breast milk,12 14 15 Correspondence to them as crying more than others of the same age were frequent changes of formulae, and maternal Dr Iná S Santos, Post-graduate classified as ‘crying babies’. Child behavioural problems mental symptoms,16 besides being the most Program in Epidemiology, were assessed through the Child Behavior Checklist common proximal risk factor for shaken baby Department of Social Medicine, (CBCL) applied to the mother at the 48-month follow- syndrome.17 Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Pelotas, Rua up. Crude and adjusted ORs with 95% CIs were The association between excessive crying in the Marechal Deodoro 1160, calculated by logistic regression. first months of life and preschool children behav- 3o piso, Pelotas, RS 96020- Results Prevalence of excessive crying at 3 months was iour has been the subject of several studies in high – 220, Brazil; inasantos@uol. 11.9% (10.9% to 13.0%). Among children with income countries,18 21 whereas scarce information com.br excessive crying at 3 months the proportion in the from low income and middle income countries is copyright. Received 20 June 2014 clinical range for CBCL total, internalising and available. To explain the association between early Revised 25 November 2014 externalising problems at 4 years of age was 31.2%, regulatory problems (excessive crying, sleeping and Accepted 3 February 2015 12.9% and 37.5%, respectively, against 20.6%, 6.8% feeding problems) and behavioural problems it has and 29.6%, respectively, among non-crying babies. After been suggested that the former may be early controlling for confounders crying babies presented markers for similar processes of inadequate or increased risk of being in clinical range of CBCL total undercontrolled behaviour in childhood.19 The aim (OR=1.34; 1.03 to 1.74), internalising (OR=1.55; 1.09 of this study was to assess the prevalence of exces- to 2.21) and externalising problems (OR=1.29; 1.01 to sive crying at the age of 3 months and to test the 1.64) than infants without excessive crying. hypothesis that excessive crying at this age is asso- Conclusions Excessive crying in early infancy may ciated with behavioural problems when children represent one important risk factor for developing reach the age of 4 years. behavioural problems in later phases of early childhood. http://jech.bmj.com/ METHODS A birth cohort was started in 2004 in the city of INTRODUCTION Pelotas (Southern Brazil) when all live births were Studies have shown that psychosocial problems in included between January 1st and December 31st. childhood are associated with psychological disor- Only newborns to mothers living in the urban area ders later in life and that early detection and treat- of Pelotas were eligible to the study. Of a total of ment of psychosocial problems in childhood are 4263 mothers complying with this inclusion criter- on September 26, 2021 by guest. Protected important for prevention of psychosocial disorders ion, 32 (0.8%) refused to participate in the peri- in adults. Children with behaviour problems are natal study. So far, visits have been carried out to recognised as at increased risk for problems with the full cohort when children were about 3, 12, 24, regulating affect, behaviour and cognition in adult- 48 and 72 months of age, with follow-up rates of – hood.1 6 95.7%, 94.0%, 93.5%, 92.0%, and 90.2%, The prevalence of excessive crying during the respectively. More details of the study can be found – first 3 months in representative community-based elsewhere.22 24 This paper uses information col- samples from high income countries has been lected at the perinatal study and at the 3-month To cite: Santos IS, reported to range between 14% and 29%.78There and the 48-month visits. Matijasevich A, is no consensus regarding the definition of exces- Capilheira MF, et al. J sive crying. A frequently used definition is the Exposure Epidemiol Community Health Published Online First: excessive paroxysmal crying, that is most likely to Excessive crying was assessed at the 3-month visit [please include Day Month occur about the same time every day (usually in the by asking the mother whether “compared to babies Year] doi:10.1136/jech- late afternoon or evenings) without any identifiable of the same age, her baby cried more, less or as the 2014-204568 cause in an otherwise healthy baby aged 2 weeks to same”. Infants whose mothers perceived them as Santos IS, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health 2015;0:1–6. doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204568 1 Copyright Article author (or their employer) 2015. Produced by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd under licence. Research report J Epidemiol Community Health: first published as 10.1136/jech-2014-204568 on 19 February 2015. Downloaded from crying more than others of the same age were classified as (‘staying with the mother’ or “neonatal intermediate or inten- ‘crying babies’.11 sive care”) was collected. Three-month postpartum covariables Outcome At 3 months post partum, maternal mental health was evaluated Child behaviour was assessed through the application to the through the application of the Self-Reporting Questionnaire mother of the 4–18 year version of the Child Behavior (SRQ-20).28 29 A validation study in Brazil defined the cut-off Checklist (CBCL)25 when children were 4 years of age. The ≥8 to identify women in higher risk of common mental disor- CBCL is designed to be self-completed (by parents), however to ders.30 Information on maternal heavy caffeine consumption maximise response rates, standardisation, accuracy and to (≥300 mg/day), breastfeeding pattern (exclusive, predominant, prevent embarrassment or error among less literate mothers, partial or weaning) was collected. Bed sharing (mother and questions were read out by trained psychologists in the identical child sharing the same surface at night to sleep),31 and use of order and form as in the original instrument. The CBCL items pacifier was also gathered at 3 months of age. are rated on a three-point Likert scale.26 Aprofile of childhood psychological problems provided scores on eight empirically Statistical analyses derived scales: withdrawn, somatic problems, anxious/ Only infants from singleton pregnancies were included in the depressed, social problems, thought problems, attention pro- analyses. Prevalence rates of excessive crying with 95% CIs (PR; blems, aggressive behaviour and rule-breaking behaviour. Data 95% CI) were calculated for every maternal and child character- from these scales were summed to provide an overall score istic. The association between excessive crying and CBCL scores (total problems), and were also grouped in two broad dimen- was assessed through logistic regression. A hierarchical model sions (internalising and externalising problems). A dichotomous was used to control for confounders. Variables associated with classification of CBCL scores comparing ‘clinical’ (positive excessive crying and positive CBCL score at a p level ≤0.20 screening) and ‘non-clinical’ (negative screening) groups was were kept in the regression model as confounders. In the first used. The clinical group was identified as those children with a t step (model 1) the crude effect of excessive crying was mea- score higher than 63 points in the CBCL total, externalising or sured. In the second step (model 2) the association between internalising scales according to the CBCL manual.25 In add- excessive crying and behavioural problems was adjusted for ition, CBCL scores were analysed as a continuous variable in maternal antenatal (antenatal care, smoking in pregnancy, caf- original score units, whereby a higher score reflects greater pro- feine intake in third trimester and maternal mood symptoms in blems. Mean CBCL scores were compared between crying and pregnancy) and perinatal variables (family income, maternal age non-crying babies using Student t test.