CORRECTION

Abstract

Three lines were transposed in the article, "Cumulative Effect of Perinatal Complications and Deprived Environment on Physical, Intellectual, and Social Development of Preschool Children," in the April issue of Pediatrics (39: 490, 1967). The paragraphs in the left hand column on page 493 should read as follows: Apgar12 in 1955 used the oxygen content of heel blood during the first .3 hours after birth as an index of asphyxia in the neonatal period. She found no relationship between this index and the Stanford-Binet I.Q. of 243 randomly selected Children at approximately 5 years. Graham13 subsequently demonstrated that the rapid change in blood oxygen during the first day of life limits its usefulness as a predictive criterion. Four years later Schachter and Apgar14 reported significant relationships between a multiple clinical criterion of perinatal complications (prolonged labor, difficult delivery, neonatal complications, and maternal illness during pregnancy) and 8-year WISC I.Q., as well as with special tests of brain damage (Bender-Gesta1t, Sorting-Test, Critical Flicker Fusion). In summary, the majority of the investigators in the foregoing prospective studies have found, among preschool children with histories of perinatal complications, significantly more impairment on infant mental and motor tests (Bayley, Cattell, and Gesell), individual intelligence tests, tests of concept-formation, vocabulary, perceptual-motor functions, neurological examinations, and behavior ratings. Realizing the possible effect of early environment some of the investigators controlled for socioeconomic status. However, the cumulative effect of both perinatal complications and environment were not analyzed. Also, with studies limited to selected hospital populations previous investigators were not able to estimate the proportion of live births with perinatal complications in an entire community.