Cognitive and health measures following early nutritional supplementation: a sibling study

Abstract

A battery of cognitive measures, an adjustment measure, and multiple health indices were obtained for sibling pairs who differed in the timing of their participation in the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) several years earlier, with participation during the perinatal period occurring for one sibling, but after one year of age for the other. Results indicated that the perinatally supplemented group showed significant enhancement of most intellectual and behavioral measures in the current home and school setting, including IQ, attention span, visual-motor synthesis, and school grade-point average when compared with the group supplemented later. Of the health assessments, most trends were in the expected direction, but only height for age values were significantly different for the two groups.