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Study suggests children born prematurely may face increased health risks into adulthood.From: Dean Huffman . (dean@thehuffpeople.net)Wed Mar 26 15:21:45 2008
.. Study suggests children born prematurely may face increased health risks into adulthood. The CBS Evening News (3/25, story 8, 2:30, Smith) reported that according to physicians, "premature births in this country have become an epidemic. Over 25 years, the preemie birthrate has climbed more than 30 percent to more than half a million a year." NBC Nightly News (3/25, story 9, 2:10, Williams) added that "we all know premature babies face all kinds of challenges in those first weeks and months after birth. What we now know is that the risk to these children can go on far longer than a lot of us thought." The Los Angeles Times (4/26, Maugh II) reports, "Infants born prematurely are much more likely to die during childhood and, if they survive, much less likely to have children of their own in adulthood," according to a study published in the Mar. 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Geeta K. Swamy, M.D., of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and colleagues, used "Norway's extensive registry of births and medical care" to analyze data on "all 1,167,506 singleton births in that country between 1967 and 1988," and "follow[ed] the children through 2002." The researchers also examined "educational achievement and reproduction in the group born between 1967 and 1976." The authors found that "[p]eople born pre-term also are less likely to graduate from high school," USA Today (3/26, 4D, Szabo) adds. Moreover, "[w]omen born prematurely are at greater risk of...giving birth pre-term, or having stillborn children, and their babies have higher rates of death in the first year." According to Dr. Swamy, "The earlier in the pregnancy that a baby was born, the higher the risk of lasting health consequences," Reuters (3/26, Dunham) reports. Premature babies typically "develop health problems primarily because their organs do not have enough time to develop in the womb." This problem "remains a prime cause of infant death in industrialized countries." Bloomberg (3/26, Britt) notes that "[p]re-term births, defined as those before 37 weeks' gestation, are becoming more common because of higher numbers of fertility treatments, multiple births, and cesarean sections in developed countries." Premature "birth is the leading cause of infant mortality in the industrialized world after congenital anomalies, and has been linked to chronic lung disease, visual and hearing loss, and neurodevelopmental handicaps." The AP (3/26, Johnson) reports that this is the "largest-ever study of the long-term consequences of premature birth," and experts are calling it "significant" because of its sheer size. The AP points out that "[n]ew drugs and therapies first used widely in the 1990s now save smaller and sicker babies." Therefore, "the babies in the study may have been healthier, on average, than children born premature in recent years." This prompted Dr. Swamy to ask, "Are we improving their survival, but at the expense of significant problems down the road?" Focusing on the details of the study, the AFP (3/26) points out that an analysis of the data revealed that "60,354, or 5.2 percent" of the 1.16 million subjects, "were born prematurely." Overall, "more boys were born premature than girls (5.6 percent to 4.7 percent), which reflects the larger ratio of male births," the authors said. Likewise, HealthDay (3/25, Gordon) reported that among "boys born between 22 and 27 weeks' gestation, the risk of early childhood mortality (between one and six years old) was 5.3 times higher, and the risk of late childhood death (between six and 12.9 years old) was seven times higher." And, "[f]or those born between 28 and 32 weeks, the risk of early childhood death was 2.5 times higher," while "the late childhood death risk was 2.3 times higher." As "[f]or girls born between 22 and 27 weeks, the risk of early childhood death was 9.7 times higher." The researchers noted that there "were no late childhood deaths in girls in this gestational age group," nor was there any "increase in mortality rates in childhood" for "girls born between 28 and 32 weeks." The authors cautioned that although "the sample size of this study was large, there were limitations, including [the] inability to generalize the findings beyond the relatively homogeneous population in Norway, absence of consistent use of ultrasound to confirm gestational age, and incomplete follow-up for reproduction," MedPage Today (3/25, Phend) added. Still, despite these findings, Dr. Swamy stated that the "survival rate among babies born very prematurely continues to increase, thanks to medical advances, and aggressive management," WebMD (3/25, Boyles) reported. In conclusion, Dr. Swamy said, "We have better interventions to help babies survive, but we don't have better interventions to prevent pre-term births. ... We really need a better understanding of the causes of pre-term delivery." AHN (3/25, Sharma) also covered the story, and this week's JAMA Report video features the study.
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