Premature Babies Have Lasting Health Consequences
A comprehensive study conducted in Norway found that being prematurely born increases the risk of mortality and can add long-lasting risks into childhood.
Researchers looked at a total of 1,167,506 participants 60,354 of which were premature births in Norway from 1967 to 1988. They found that preterm births were higher in boys, at 5.6 percent, than in girls, at 4.7 percent. This was consistent with the male-dominated sex ration of all births, they said.
The study defined premature birth as infants born as early as 22 weeks.
Men and women born extremely preterm had higher risks of mortality into childhood, some up to the age of 13. Additionally, they found that those born prematurely had lower reproduction rates as they reached adulthood, and were more likely to give birth to preemies as well.
"We were surprised that it persisted so long into childhood,” said Dr. Geeta Swamy of Duke University Medical Center, one of the researchers.
"The highest risk was in those who were born extremely pre-term, and by extremely pre-term we define that as less than 28 weeks.”
Experts emphasized that the cases studied were of children born prior to many medical advances that have improved chances of survival after premature birth.
Many studies have proven that preterm birth increases the risk of infant mortality, but few have studied its effects into adulthood. The U.S. and Norwegian researchers were able to link information from the Medical Birth Registry to both educational and mortality data for more than 35 years of follow-up.
Researchers also affirmed the findings of previous studies that showed preterm and postterm births to be more likely to occur among unmarried mothers and those with lower education.
Premature birth is the prime cause of infant death in industrialized countries.
"When a family has a pre-term baby, they’re pretty concerned and aware of what’s going on in those first few months, first years of life. It may be that they need to keep that heightened awareness that there may be other things we should watch out for," said Swamy.
The study appeared in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Wanda Barfield of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal in which she said that the findings were “the best case scenario” due to Norway’s universal access to medical care and Norway’s homogenous population.
Barfield found that premature birth rates of black mothers in the U.S. are higher than those of white mothers.
Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes, said that the study emphasized the efficiency of a more modern medical approach.
"These outcomes are all from babies who didn’t benefit from the most modern respirators, the most modern technology, the most modern treatments," Fleischman said.
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On the Net:
Journal of the American Medical Association: http://jama.ama-assn.org/
March of Dimes: http://www.marchofdimes.com/