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. The study focused on extremely preterm infants, delivered at 23 to 25 weeks gestation. 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. Roughly 64 percent of the teens born preterm needed routine care from a physician or specialist for a chronic health problems or special services like physical or occupational therapy, nursing care or special school arrangements. Complications that are common in extremely preterm infants, such as central nervous system injuries, lung disease, eye problems and infections, “have been shown to be related to many of the chronic health problems” Farooqi noted.

Source: Egypt Independent January 21, 2017 15:04 UTC