Delayed onset of regular respiration and subsequent development.

A comprehensive survey carried out at birth, data on mortality and a 5 year follow-up covering medical, educational and sociological aspects of child development were available for singleton births born in one week of April 1970. The survey at 5 years of age included 12363 children, 79.6% of the surviving cohort. An assessment has been made of the extent to which delay in the onset of regular respiration at birth is associated with the subsequent development of the child. Using the results of our previous investigations, the relationships between this delay and other factors known at the time of birth have been taken into account. The distributions of a large number of development variables were not significantly different for groups of children determined by respiratory delay at birth, but there was an association with mortality and cerebral palsy. In addition, there was an unexpected relationship between delayed onset of respiration and subsequent bronchitis. This association remained significant after controlling for possible confounding effects using linear modelling techniques.