Detailed contribution information
| Contribution title | Natural Disasters as a Maternal Prenatal Stressor and Children’s Neurodevelopment: A Systematic Review |
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| Contribution code | D1.091 |
| Authors | |
| Form of presentation | Poster |
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| Abstract |
The intrauterine period is a time of high sensitivity in the development of the embryo and the fe-tus. Therefore, low levels of maternal stress are closely associated with healthy brain development in the neonatal and early childhood periods. There is increasing evidence linking natural disasters as prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) to neurodevelopmental disorders (including subclinical manifestations). Natural disasters involve many factors in addition to the trauma they cause, including loss and the physical and psychosocial difficulties that result from that trauma. This review article aims to bring together research findings on the neurodevelopmental effects of natural disasters on children as PNMS. It also looks at how factors such as gestational age and gender contribute to these effects. We conducted a systematic-review on PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus with 30 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Quality of each cohort and cross-sectional study was assess using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOQAS). Quality of each natural experiment and quasi-experimental study was assess using TREND Statement Checklist. A total of 1,327,886 mother-child dyads participated in the included studies. The results of the studies indicate that natural disasters have a negative impact on children’s outcomes in terms of cognitive development, language development, autism/autism-like features, motor skills, performance in mathematics, mental development, sleep, attention, behavioral and emotional problems and various psychiatric comorbidities. The small number of databases consulted and the lack of a meta-analytic perspective are the main limitations of this study. The main strength is that we did a scoping review in accordance with the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews guidelines. Our research was a comprehensive study covering all types of natural disasters and analyzing all neurodevelopmental effects in children. In addition, the quality of the analyzed studies was mostly high, which is an important indicator of the reliability of the results of these studies. |