Antenatal Hypoxia and IQ Values-Reply

In Reply.—Our study found that chronic but not acute antenatal hypoxia was associated with lower-than-expected IQ scores in 7-year-old children. These findings did not change when children with one-minute Apgar scores of 7 through 10 were included in the acute hypoxia analyses. Dr Harkavy may have also misunderstood how multiple regression analysis data should be interpreted. The β values in our tables take into consideration all nonhypoxic factors that might influence IQ values. In addition, antenatal hypoxia does contribute to the IQ influences attributed to social and demo-graphic factors, but the elucidation of these factors was not the purpose of our study. Our purpose was to determine if antenatal hypoxia affects children's subsequent IQ values, independent of social and demographic factors. Dr Harkavy also asks if antenatal hypoxia affected the cognitive performance of children who died before 7 years of age. These children had lower-than-expected eight-month Bayley Mental Test