Early life home microbiome and hyperactivity/inattention in school-age children

Abstract

This study evaluates the association between indoor microbial diversity early in life and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms in children at ages 10 and 15 years.A random sample enriched with subjects with hyperactivity/inattention at age 15 years was selected from the German LISA birth cohort. Bedroom floor dust was collected at age 3 months and 4 bacterial and fungal diversity measures [number of observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs), Chao1, Shannon and Simpson indices] were calculated from Illumina MiSeq sequencing data. Hyperactivity/inattention was based on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at ages 10 and 15 (cut-off ≥7). Adjusted associations between 4 diversity measures in tertiles and hyperactivity/inattention were investigated with weighted and survey logistic regression models. We included 226 individuals with information on microbial diversity and hyperactivity/inattention. Early life bacterial diversity was inversely associated with hyperactivity/inattention at age 10 [bacterial OTUs (medium vs low: aOR = 0.4, 95%CI = (0.2–0.8)) and Chao1 (medium vs low: 0.3 (0.1–0.5); high vs low: 0.3 (0.2–0.6)], whereas fungal diversity was directly associated [Chao1 (high vs low: 2.1 (1.1–4.0)), Shannon (medium vs low: 2.8 (1.3–5.8)), and Simpson (medium vs low: 4.7 (2.4–9.3))]. At age 15, only Shannon index was significantly associated with hyperactivity/inattention [bacteria (medium vs low: 2.3 (1.2–4.2); fungi (high vs low: 0.5 (0.3–0.9))]. In conclusion, early life exposure to microbial diversity may play a role in the psychobehavioural development. We observe heterogeneity in the direction of the associations encouraging further longitudinal studies to deepen our understanding of the characteristics of the microbial community underlying the observed associations.