Mental Development Following Maternal Rubella: A Follow‐Up Study of Children Born in 1951–1952

Summary Children of mothers who had contracted rubella in early pregnancy in 1951–1952 showed a higher incidence of subnormal head circumference than did control children. They also showed a delayed functional development, as judged from the age at which they sat and/or stood by themselves. “School‐maturity” tests were performed in 449 children with histories of maternal rubella in the first five months of pregnancy and in 403 controls at 7 years of age. Of 78 children with histories of rubella in the second month of pregnancy, 26% were “school‐immature”, compared with 13% of the 403 controls. This difference was significant. No such differences were observed for the first‐, third‐, fourth‐ and fifth‐month rubella children, but for the third‐month group a tendency was noted. Of 120 second‐month rubella children and of 153 third‐month children, 13% and 11% respectively had a record of school entry postponement, compared with 3% of 629 controls. Of the 120 second‐month children, 30% were assigned by their teachers to the bottom third of the class, as against only 21% of the controls. These differences were significant. No such differences were demonstrable among the first‐, fourth‐ and fifth‐month rubella children, as compared with the controls. The results of this investigation have underlined the need for a psychometric study of a limited number of the children here reported. Such a study will be reported in the near future.