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Pediatrics News
Article Date: 25 Sep 2006 - 10:00am (PDT)
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Babies with very low birth weights tend to have a
much lower quality of life when they are three or
four years old, according to a study published in
the latest issue of the UK-based Journal of
Advanced Nursing.
Researchers assessed 118 children who had birth
weights of 1500g or less and compared them with a
control group of 170 born at normal weights to
compare their quality of life when it came to
physical, emotional, cognitive and social functions.
They discovered that the very low birth-weight
children scored consistently lower scores on a scale
designed to measure quality of life among pre-school
children.
Their parents were also much more likely to say that
their child had health issues, with 29 per cent
reporting a current problem, compared with 18 per
cent in the control group.
In general, children with low birth weight had
poorer lung function, appetite and motor function
than normal birth-weight children, as well as being
more anxious, less positive and less lively.
Premature babies delivered before 28 weeks were much
more likely to have a lower quality of life when it
came to cognitive functions such as communication.
Longer stays in neonatal intensive care units were
also linked to reduced social function. The
researchers suggest that this could be related to
higher stress levels in early life as no specific
link was established between longer stays and
reduced physical functioning.
The researchers also discovered that children with
very low birth weights scored better on emotional
and social quality of life scales if their primary
caregiver had a higher level of education.
"Previous studies of very low birth-weight babies
have mostly focused on issues such as death,
illness, neurodevelopment, growth and cognitive
ability" says lead researcher Dr Li-Yin Chien,
Associate Professor in the Institute of Community
Health Nursing at National Yang-Ming University,
Taiwan.
"Our research underlines the importance of
monitoring quality of life in children with low
birth weights to identify those at risk and
intervene early.
"Healthcare professionals need to consider a number
of biological and environmental factors as part of
their assessment. These include current health
problems, age at delivery, length of stay in the
neonatal intensive care unit and the educational
level of the primary caregiver."
Children ranging from 36 to 53 months were included
in the study, supported by Taiwan's National Science
Council. 57 per cent were boys.
252 mothers, 33 fathers and three other caregivers
took part in the questionnaire-based study, which
was carried out using a Mandarin language version of
a quality of life instrument developed in the
Netherlands.
The 118 very low birth weight children were less
than 1500g (three pounds and five ounces) and were
cared for in the neonatal intensive care units of
four hospitals in northern Taiwan. The survival rate
for babies in this weight range is just over 76 per
cent in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the control group were children who
attended preschools and weighed at least 2500g (five
pounds and eight ounces) or more at birth.
The mothers of very low birth-weight babies tended
to be younger than the mothers in the control group,
and were half as likely to be educated to college
degree or higher. 45 per cent didn't work, compared
with 17 per cent in the control group.
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Contact: Annette Whibley
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
