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Growth and Development in Children with Sickle-Cell Trait — A Prospective Study of Matched Pairs

List of authors.
  • Michael S. Kramer, M.D.,
  • Yolanda Rooks, R.N., P.N.P.,
  • and Howard A. Pearson, M.D.

Abstract

To ascertain if sickle-cell trait (Hb AS) impairs physical growth and cognitive development, we prospectively investigated 50 matched pairs of black children. For each child with Hb AS, an Hb AA child was matched at birth for sex, birth date, birth weight, gestational age, five-minute Apgar score and socio-economic status. Between the ages of three and five years, the members of each matched pair were evaluated, within one month of one another, by persons "blind" to the hemoglobin genotype.

Twelve outcome measurements were obtained at evaluation: height, weight, head circumference, skinfold thickness, cross-sectional area of arm muscle, bone age, five scores of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. There were no statistically significant differences in these measurements favoring the AA group. The results show that children with sickle-cell trait in this age group have no deficits in standard measurements of growth and development and emphasize the importance of rigorous methods when clinical groups are assembled and compared. (N Engl J Med 299:686–689, 1978)

Funding and Disclosures

Presented in part at the annual meeting of the American Pediatric Society in New York, NY, April 27, 1978.

Supported by a grant (RR-125) from the General Clinical Research Centers Program Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, and by a contract (NO1-HB-2–2950 NHLBI) with the National Institutes of Health.

We are indebted to Dr. Alvan R. Feinstein for advice in designing the research and preparing the manuscript, to Ms. Nancy Gertner for the chart abstraction, matching and data coding and arrangement of the evaluation sessions, to Ms. Cynthia DeHaan, R.N., for the anthropometric measurements on the study subjects, and to Ms. LaRue Washington for planning and performing the cognitive assessments.

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (address reprint requests to Dr. Kramer at Montreal Children's Hospital, 2300 Tupper St., Montreal, PQ, H3H 1P3 Canada).

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