Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT1344

Context: Higher androgen levels during minipuberty have been associated with more masculine sex-typed play behaviour in full-term (FT) infants. On the other hand, reduced sex-typed play behaviour has been reported in preterm (PT) children at the age of five years.

Aim: To investigate the longitudinal development of sex-typed play behaviour and its association with testosterone and DHEAS levels during minipuberty in FT and PT children.

Methods: A standardized psychometric questionnaire Preschool Activities Inventory (PSAI) was used to measure the sex-typed play behaviour in 54 FT (boys n = 26) and 91 PT (boys n = 44) children at three time points: infancy (mean age (SD) 1.2 (0.1), n = 117), early childhood (EC, 3.1 (0.3), n = 89) and late childhood (LC, 9.1 (0.7) n = 63). Higher PSAI score indicates more masculine and lower score more feminine behaviour. Urinary testosterone and DHEAS levels during minipuberty were measured using HPLC-MS/MS. Spearman’s correlation and mixed model were used for statistical analyses.

Results: Both testosterone and DHEAS levels in minipuberty were significantly (P <0.001) higher in PT than in FT infants. DHEAS levels did not differ between sexes, but testosterone levels were higher in boys than in girls (P <0.001). Notably, testosterone levels in PT girls were at the same level as in FT boys. In all the children, testosterone level correlated positively with PSAI in infancy (Spearman’s rho 0.230, P = 0.013) and in EC (rho 0.339, P = 0.001), but not in LC (rho 0.194, P = 0.132). However, no significant associations were observed in the subgroups. In PT boys, DHEAS correlated negatively with PSAI in infancy (P = 0.036), but in the other multivariate analyses including the number of brothers and sisters and the age, neither testosterone nor DHEAS levels were associated with PSAI scores.

Conclusions: Prematurity seems to affect the longitudinal development of the PSAI score, but the differences are small. Urinary T or DHEAS measured during minipuberty were not associated with PSAI score after early childhood.