Ten‐year follow‐up of children born before 29 gestational weeks: health, cognitive development, behaviour and school achievement

Abstract

Stjernqvist K, Svenningsen NW. Ten-year follow-up of children born before 29 gestational weeks: health, cognitive development, behaviour and school achievement. Acta Paediatr 1999; 88: 557-62. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-5253 Since the mid-1990s several studies have reported poor school performance in extremely preterm infants. The necessity to provide a full picture of the child's situation has been indicated. In a southern Swedish population 32 120 infants were born during the 2-y period 1985-1986. In total, 121 infants (0.4%) were reported liveborn before the 29th gestational wk and 12 (0.04%) were reported stillborn. Only 65 infants (50%) survived to the age of 10 y. The aim of this study was to evaluate the situation of extremely preterm (EPT) children at school, compared with that of fullterm (FT) control children, at the age of 10 y. Health, cognitive development, school achievement and behaviour were measured. Ninety-two percent of the preterm children had no major neurological disability and most were in good health. The EPT children had an IQ of 90 AE 15 vs 106 AE 15 (mean AE SD) for the FT children (p`0.001), and on the test of Visual-Motor Integration, the EPT children had 93.3 AE 12.2 vs 109.6 AE 14.2 for FT peers (p`0.001). On both tests the differences between the groups corresponded to approximately one standard deviation. Thirty-eight percent of the EPT children performed below grade level at school. Thirty-two percent had general behavioural problems and 20% had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, compared with 10% and 8%, respectively, in the FT group. EPT children require interventions to support their development and reduce behavioural problems. & Behaviour, development, extremely preterm, follow-up, health, school achievement

Developmental risks and protective factors for influencing cognitive outcome at 5½ years of age in very‐low‐birthweight children

“…In the literature there is a continuing discussion about whether to use corrected or chronological age when comparing the results of preterm children with test norms or with the results of controls. Stjernqvist and Svenningsen (1999) suggested the use of corrected age at four years for ELBW children. Rickards et al (1989) suggested that a correction up to 8 1 ⁄ 2 years is reasonable.…”

“…There are no other Swedish population-based studies that are directly comparable to this one. Stjernqvist and Svenningsen (1999) made a 10-year follow-up in the mid-1990s but their study focused on extremely preterm children born before 29 weeks' of gestation. They also used another version of the Wechsler scales, the school age version (WISC-III) of the WPPSI-R scale and based the test results on chronological age, which makes comparisons difficult.…”

How to facilitate parents and their premature infant for the transition home

“…This dramatic practice can provoke anxiety and create a new family crisis (Sylvest 2000). Often, the health visitor 1 and general practitioner 2 assigned to the family do not have sufficient knowledge or training in caring for premature infants and their well-being and development, nor do they understand well enough the range of problems that could arise in this respect (Cusson & Lee 1993;Stjernquist & Svenningsen 1999).…”

On the similarities and differences of non-traumatic sound exposure during the critical period and in adulthood

“…Potential extrapolations can be drawn that pertain to human auditory development. Several studies of long-term outcomes in NICU graduates cite speech and language problems (Stjernqvist and Svenningsen, 1999; Marlow et al, 2005; Kern and Gayraud, 2007). However, few studies have specifically linked them with noise type and levels.…”