Parents of preterm infants often ask us about the implications of prematurity on developmental outcome as their babies grow up. While published studies describe risk and protective factors, little is known about what happens decades later. In a study being early released, O’Reilly et al (10.1542/peds.2019-2087) evaluated neuropsychological outcomes in 127 young adults who were born preterm compared to 64 term-born controls. The results demonstrate impaired neuropsychological functioning, which worsened between the ages of 11 and 19 years.
What can we learn from this study that will be helpful in informing families of extremely preterm infants? We asked Drs. Louis Schmidt and Saroj Saigal from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, to share with us their thoughts on the take-aways from the O’Reilly et al study in an accompanying commentary (10.1542/peds.2019-3359). They provide us with three important lessons. Rather than share them with you in this blog, suffice it to say the context, heterogeneity, and measurement tools can all play a role in what a long-term follow-up study may show, and one set of results, especially with a small sample size, may not generalize to all. To learn more about this long-term follow-up study, link to both this article and accompanying commentary and learn more.
