The relationship of birth weight and length of gestation to intellectual development at ages 8 to 10 years

Abstract

Longitudinal data from the Johns Hopkins Study of Premature Infants were analyzed to compare the postnatal mental development of small-for-dates infants with that of other low-birth-weight newborn infants. At ages 8 to 10 years the I.Q. scores in children of the two groups were not different. Infants who weighed more than 2,500 Gm. at birth and whose mothers reported a gestational period of less than 38 weeks had significantly lower I.Q. scores at ages 8 to 10 years than did the children who were reportedly born at term with birth weights exceeding 2,500 Gm.