A recent article (J Bourke et al. .J Pediatr 2019; 215: 90-7) made me wonder if my outlook on disability-free survival of preterm infants has been skewed by the population that I encounter. That is, the outcomes from this large Australia study were better than I would have guessed.
This retrospective cohort study identified 720.091 live births from 1983-2010; in this group, 12,083 were diagnosed with a disability and 5,662 died. The authors sought to determine rates of intellectual disability or autism as identified by the IDEA (Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers) database. Because this is a retrospective study, it did not capture milder and more common neurodevelopmental disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Key findings:
The probability of disability-free survival to 25 years was the following:
- 4.1% for those born at 22 weeks gestation
- 19.7% for those born at 23 weeks gestation
- 42.4% for those born at 24 weeks gestation
- 53.0% for those born at 25 weeks gestation
- 78.3% for those born at 28 weeks gestation
- 97.2% for those born full term (39-41 weeks)
Risk factors for lower rates of disability-free survival:
- Aboriginal population (instead of Caucasian), low Apgar score, male sex, low socioeconomic status, and remote region of residence
My take: This data shows the marked improvement in outcomes with longer gestation age.
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