Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Vivian Santiago, MPH¹, Veronica Hinton, PhD², Luisa Borrell, DDS, PhD¹, and Dale Hesdorffer, PhD³. (1) Epidemiology, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, room 720c, New York, NY 10032, 212.305.6706, vs56@columbia.edu, (2) Neurology, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY 10032, (3) GH Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street , P&S Box 16, New York, NY 10032

Objective: To further understanding of the association between socioeconomic indicators (SEI) and adaptive behavior skills (AB) in a non-mentally retarded (MR) population of young children of ages 6 months to 5 years, and to explore possible mediating factors in the child's immediate environment. We hypothesized that 1) SEI would be positively associated with adaptive behavior and 2) that maternal verbal IQ(MVIQ) and quality of the home environment (i.e., books in the home, daily hours watching TV, the frequency with which the child is taken on outings, and frequency s/he is read to) would partially explain this association. Methods: The data used are from a hospital based follow-up study of children who had experienced a fever episode with or without a seizure (N=295). Adaptive behavior was measured using the Adaptive Behavior Composite (ABC) score of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Simple and multiple linear-regression analyses with significance tests at alpha=.05 were conducted on the cross-sectional baseline data. Results: We found that maternal education(≥college and =HS vs. ≤primary school: β=8.09;p=0067,β=7.45;p=.0093), employment (β=-4.21; p=.0195), and home ownership(β=7.01;p=.0297) were significant, and number of rooms in the home nearly significant(β=1.11;p=.07) predictors of the VABS-ABC association (adjusting for premature birth and mother's age). Although these estimates remained of equal-statistical-significance, the frequency of outings and the MVIQ were found to decrease their magnitude, except for employment(βs=6.13, 5.03,-4.47 5.32, and 1.02 respectively). Conclusions: Findings suggest it may be important to consider SEI and mediating factors when the VABS is used with a non-MR population of young children.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Understand the concept of Adaptive Behavior, the history of its development for use in research and clinical practice of mentally retarded populations and its current use to inform research and clinical practice in non-mentally retarded populations of children.
• Recognize key socioeconomic indicators that may need to be considered when the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale is used to measure adaptive behavior skills in a non-mentally retarded population of young children ages 6 months 5 years.
• Identify factors in the child’s immediate environment that may mediate the association between these socioeconomic indicators and the adaptive behavior skills of young non-mentally retarded children.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered