Rethinking what is important: biologic versus social predictors of childhood health and educational outcomes.

Background: Social risk factors are often less vigorously pursued in clinical assessments of infant risk than are biologic risk factors. We examined the relative importance of early social and biologic risk factors in predicting poor health and educational outcomes in children.

Methods: The study was composed of all infants born in Winnipeg, Canada, during April-December 1984, who were followed up until age 19 years (n = 4667).