BACKGROUND The majority of infants born before the last trimester now grow up. However, knowledge on subsequent health related quality of life (HRQoL) is scarce. We therefore aimed to compare HRQoL in children born extremely preterm with control children born at term. Furthermore, we assessed HRQoL in relation to perinatal and neonatal morbidity and to current clinical and sociodemographic char...

BACKGROUND Rates of preterm birth have increased in most industrialised countries but data on later lung function of late preterm births are limited. A study was undertaken to compare lung function at 8-9 and 14-17 years in children born late preterm (33-34 and 35-36 weeks gestation) with children of similar age born at term (≥37 weeks gestation). Children born at 25-32 weeks gestation were als...

BACKGROUND Preterm-born or asphyxiated term-born children who received neonatal intensive care show more emotional and behavioral problems than term-born children without a medical condition. It is uncertain whether regular parenting intervention programs to which the parents of these children are usually referred, are effective in reducing child problem behavior in this specific population. Ou...

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence suggests that preterm birth affects later lung function. We systematically reviewed the literature to determine whether percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s (%FEV1) is lower in later life in preterm-born subjects, with or without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), compared with term-born controls. METHODS Studies reporting %FEV1, with or without a...

Neonatal pain-related stress is associated with elevated salivary cortisol levels to age 18 months in children born very preterm, compared to full-term, suggesting early programming effects. Importantly, interactions between immune/inflammatory and neuroendocrine systems may underlie programming effects. We examined whether cortisol changes persist to school age, and if common genetic variants ...

BACKGROUND This study assessed the concurrent validity of the parent-completed developmental screening measure Ages and Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3) compared with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) in children born term, late preterm, or extremely preterm at 8, 18, or 30 months of corrected gestational ages (CGA). METHODS Data were ...

BACKGROUND auditory processing. AIM to verify the hearing behavior of temporal resolution in children with ages from five to six years, who were born preterm, with no evidence of neurological alterations and to compare this behavior to that observed in children of the same age, who were born at term, with low risk for developmental disorders, taking into consideration the variables of: thresh...

Introduction Preterm birth is defined as gestational age at birth of less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days. The lower limit varies in different countries: as per WHO the lower limit is 22 weeks and 500 grams. Preterm infant is further classified into three main categories: late preterm infant (infant born between 34-36 weeks), moderately preterm infant (infant born between 32-34 completed we...

Children born preterm, and more specifically those with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), are prone to exhibit scholastic difficulties and behavioral problems later in development. Neuropsychological studies showed that their deficits in response inhibition and attention could be at the heart of these difficulties. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using a Go/No-go task...

OBJECTIVE Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain carried out during the neonatal period shows that 55-80% of extremely preterm infants display white matter diffuse excessive high signal intensity (DEHSI). Our aim was to study differences in developmental outcome at the age of 6.5 years in children born extremely preterm with and without DEHSI. STUDY DESIGN This was a prospective cohort...