Effects of executive and memory function of fetus with earthquake stress / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of Tangshan earthquake stress on the executive and memory func?tion in adults. Methods The objects were recruited from Tangshan Kailuan Mining Group. The exposed group included 251 subjects whose mothers exposed to the Tangshan earthquake during pregnancy in 1976. The control group included 341 subjects whose mothers was pregnant the year after the Tangshan earthquake. According to mother's pregnancy time relative to the earthquake exposed group was divided into 3 subgroupsthe late pregnancy of earthquake exposed group, the second trimester of earthquake exposed group and the early pregnancy of earthquake exposed group. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used to evaluate executive function, Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) was used to evaluate memory function. Results The index of WCST were not different between two groups (P>0.05). Com?pared with control group, BVMT-R total scores were lower in earthquake exposed group [(25.54 ± 7.45) vs. (27.28 ± 7.10), P<0.01]. In the earthquake exposed group, pregnancy and sex had interaction effect on the nonpreservative errors (nRpe) of WCST (P<0.05). In the late pregnancy earthquake exposed group, male had higher nRpe than female (P<0.01). Preg?nancy time had main effect on offsprings' BVMT-R scores (P<0.05). The BVMT-R total scores were lower in late trimes?ter pregnancy and in second trimester pregnancy than in the early pregnancy (P<0.05). Conclusion The Tangshan earth?quake has potential effect on the memory function of the offsprings. The second trimester (4-to 6-month) and the third trimester (7-to 9-month) may be the sensitive pregnancy window of the stress during the pregnancy. The male offspring from late pregnancy of exposed earthquake have poorer executive function than female.