EDUCATIONAL CAPACITY OF LOW CIRCLE WEIGHT CHILDREN UP TO THE AGE 24 YEARS

Abstract

The attendance to further education after the compulsory education and completion to further studies was examined among LBW = low birth weight = < 2500g) and NBW (=normal birth weight = 250Ug) children. Of the Northern Finland one year birth cohort for 1966 72% olsory education at the age of 19 in finland. 8.9 % of LBW and 7.0 % of NBW children did not enroll in further education. The enrollment of the disabled LBW children compared to the disabled NBW children however, was significantly worse, 57.1% of the disabled LBW children and 36.8 % of the disabled NBW children did not enroll. Especially the disabled LBW girls enrolled poorly, 76.9 % of these and 52.5 % of NBW disabled girls did not enroll. Completing further studies before the age of 24 was more poor among the LBW children compared to the NBW children. 22.0 % of the LBW children and 17.5 % of the NBW children did not graduate. However, if disabled children were excluded, healthy LBW children succeeded as well as healthy NBW children. The healthy and especially the disabled LBw girls graduated more infrequently than the LBW boys. When excluding disabled children and controlling for confonding factors by stratification, low birth weight did not affect on enrolling and on nongraduation. Altogether the success of LBW children and on nongraduation. Altogether the success of LBw children seemed satisfactory regarding their intermediate-level schooling and their graduation, the exception being the disabled LBw children, especially girls.