Premature birth and Long term health issues Linked

By Smrity Sharma

The study published in the March 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that the premature birth increase chances of death throughout childhood, lower rates of reproduction in adulthood and lower educational achievement.

Lead author, Geeta Swamy of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina said,“When a baby is born preterm, we tend to focus on the short-term risk of complications.”

Adding further she said, “While it is true that the risk of complications is highest in the immediate time period including hospitalization and the first year of life, that risk continues into adolescence. And the earlier you’re born, the higher the risk. Those who are born extremely prematurely are more likely to have complications throughout their lives.”

Researchers studied the birth and death data available from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway for nearly 1 million births (boys and girls ) from 1967 - 1988. They followed up the subjects in 2002 for survival rate.

Swamy says, infants who were born very prematurely, from 22 to 27 weeks of pregnancy had the highest risk of death throughout childhood. The risk persisted for girls until about age 6 and for boys up to about age 13.

Boys who were born at 22 to 27 weeks were 76% less likely to have children and women were 67% less likely than their siblings who had full term deliveries. For those born at 28 to 32 weeks, boys were 30% less likely and girls were 19% less likely to have their own babies.

Nearly 5% of the infants in the study were premature, with boys a bit more likely than girls.

Another study by Canadian researchers linked premature birth with early signs of autism. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism or related disorders such as Asperger's syndrome strike one out of 150 US children.