Long-term outcome for non-handicapped low birth weight infants--is the fog clearing?

Abstract

The frequency of cerebral palsy increases with decreasing gestational age affecting approximately 7% of survivors with birth weights less than 1500 g (very low birth weight, VLBW) [7]. In addition, low birth weight (birth weight less than 2500 g, LBW) and VLBW children without cerebral palsy or other major neurohandicaps have an increased frequency of "new morbidities" including learning disabilities, behavioural problems, lower mean IQ, and motor clumsiness compared to normal birth weight peers [15, 16, 20]. However, understanding is still lacking regarding the nature and frequency of such problems, predisposing risk factors, and the relationship of such problems with parental factors, including socio-economic status. A fundamental concept for understanding the large and often confusing literature on LBW and later neurobehavioral development is that LBW may have many different aetiologies, with varying relative frequency in different populations, which probably have different degrees of associated risk for impairment of later development.