Abstract
The prevalence at school age of cerebral palsy and severe educational subnormality in children of low birthweight (≤4 lb=1814 g) born to residents in the region served by the South-East Thames Regional Health Authority in the early 1970s was compared with that in children of the same birthweight born in 1950-53. The prevalence of one or both of these defects was lower in the 1970s cohort; this was due to both a fall in the incidence of extreme gestational immaturity among children of low birthweight and a reduction in risk of defects to the gestationally immature births that occurred. The decreased risk of these defects in children of low birthweight was approximately counter-balanced by the increased likelihood of their survival; among children of all birthweights the prevalence of these defects attributable to children of very low birthweight changed little.
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