1999 Cohort

Status

Completed

Results

Extremely low birth weight infants (401-1000 g) born during 1999 and who survived discharge home were tracked and evaluated between 18 and 24 months corrected age at participating Network Centers. Twenty-five Centers actively participated in this year's project. Data was combined with the 1998 cohort and results were analyzed. One thousand eight hundred forty infants survived and were eligible for follow-up. Of those infants, 1080 received health and neurodevelopmental status evaluations. One third of these evaluated infants were severely growth retarded (< 3rd percentile body size) and 14% had microcephaly (< 3rd percentile head size). Forty four percent of the infants were rehospitalized and 32% required rehospitalization for a surgical procedure. Overall, 32% had severe disability defined as having one of the following: bilateral blindness (1.5%), hearing impairment requiring amplification (2.6%), inability to walk with support (4.4%), cerebral palsy (10.3%), or Bayley mental development index score < 70 (23.6%).

Publications and Presentations

Results were presented at the Society for Pediatric Research Meeting held in Seatte, May 2003.

Mercier C, Conner J, Howard D, Cohen H, Dunn M, Magooon M, Soll R and the ELBW Follow-Up Centers Expanded Follow-Up of the Health and Developmental Outcome of Infants with Birthweight (BW) Less Than 1001 Grams. Pediatric Research. 2003: 53;4 494A.

Disclosure

No information to disclose