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Sex-Specific Effects of Birth Weight on Longitudinal Behavioral Outcomes: A Mendelian Randomization Approach Using Polygenic Scores

It is unclear whether sex differences in behavior arising from birth weight (BW) are genuine because of the cross-sectional nature and potential confounding in previous studies. We aimed to test whether sex differences associated with BW phenotype were reproducible using a Mendelian randomization approach, i.e., association between polygenic score (PGS) for BW and behavior outcomes across childhood and adolescence. 

Citation:
Byg LM, Wang C, Attia J, Whitehouse A, Pennell C. Sex-Specific Effects of Birth Weight on Longitudinal Behavioral Outcomes: A Mendelian Randomization Approach Using Polygenic Scores. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 2024;4(6).

Keywords:
Aggression; Birth weight; Child Behavior Checklist; Children and adolescents; Developmental programming; gene-environment interactions

Abstract:
It is unclear whether sex differences in behavior arising from birth weight (BW) are genuine because of the cross-sectional nature and potential confounding in previous studies. We aimed to test whether sex differences associated with BW phenotype were reproducible using a Mendelian randomization approach, i.e., association between polygenic score (PGS) for BW and behavior outcomes across childhood and adolescence.