Original articleNeurosensory Disabilities at School Age in Geographic Cohorts of Extremely Low Birth Weight Children Born Between the 1970s and the 1990s
Section snippets
ELBW Births in 1997
The ELBW cohort born between January 1 and December 31, 1997 in Victoria, Australia comprised 170 survivors to age 8 years out of 233 consecutive live births with birth weight 500 to 999 g, a survival rate of 73.0%. The corresponding NBW cohort comprised 199 randomly selected children of birth weight > 2499 g born in 1 of the 3 level-III perinatal centers in Victoria, all of whom survived to age 8 years. Controls were born on the expected date of birth of an ELBW child, matched for sex and
Results
The ELBW children born in 1997 had a survival rate of 73% at age 8; the follow-up rates for survivors at age 8 were 94% for the ELBW children and 87% (173/199) for the NBW controls (Table I). No statistically significant differences in cognitive or motor development at age 2 years, as assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition,18 were seen between the controls who were evaluated and those who were not evaluated at age 8 years (P = .97 and .32, respectively). The
Discussion
The rate of survival to age 8 years in ELBW children born in Victoria rose progressively over the 4 eras studied. This increase was especially dramatic in those children with a birth weight of 500 to 749 g. Our findings are consistent with trends reported in other developed countries20 and confirm our first 2 study hypotheses. The rates of disabilities in ELBW children remained stable over time and were higher than those in NBW controls in the 1997 cohort, as were the differences between ELBW
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Supported by the Department of Human Services, Victoria, Australia.
The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
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A complete list of Victorian Infant Collaborative Study Group members is available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix).