Loading...
In Europe and the U.S., about 2% of live births are very preterm (gestational age, <33 weeks). As advances in neonatal care improve survival rates, how many preterm children require ongoing intervention for adverse sequelae of prematurity, particularly for subtle cognitive and behavioral problems?
Investigators followed a population-based cohort of 2357 very-preterm neonates (gestational age, 22–32 weeks) and a reference cohort of 664 full-term infants who were born in 1997 in France. Overall, 77% of the very-preterm group and 60% of the full-term group had neurologic and psychologic assessments at age 5 years.
At follow-up, the prevalence of cerebral palsy and visual and hearing deficiencies increased with decreasing gestational age. Mean sc…