Preterm birth linked to health problems in adolescence

Adolescents who were born extremely premature are much more likely to have chronic health problems than their peers who were delivered at full term, a Swedish study suggests.
"Children born extremely preterm at 23 to 25 weeks gestation face an increased risk of chronic health problems such as neurodevelopmental handicap (mostly mild or moderate), asthma, and behavioral difficulties," said study co-author Dr Aijaz Farooqi, a researcher at the University Hospital of Umea in Sweden.
"At school age, many extremely preterm children whose general intelligence is normal or in the lower normal range have motor impairments, behavioral problems, social problems and academic underachievement," Farooqi added by email.
Farooqi's team studied 134 youngsters ages 10 to 15 who were born extremely preterm, plus 103 children who were full-term infants but otherwise similar.

Compared to the full-term group, adolescents in the preemie group were 15 times more likely to have severe physical or mental impairments and more than five times as likely to require more medical or educational services than children typically need, the study found.
Overall, 64% of the preemies in the study had functional...