Journal
NEUROLOGY
Volume 77, Issue 23, Pages 2052-2060Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31823b473e
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Funding
- Academy of Finland
- University of Helsinki
- Finnish Medical Society Duodecim
- Finska Lakaresallskapet
- Finnish Foundation for Pediatric Research
- Finnish Special Governmental Subsidy for Health Sciences
- Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation
- Novo Nordisk Foundation
- Paivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation
- Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation
- Yrjo Jahnsson Foundation
- Orion-Pharma Foundation
- Sigrid Juselius Foundation
- Finnish National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation
- Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation
- Pediatric Graduate School, University of Helsinki
- Emil Aaltonen Foundation
- Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation
- Duodecim Foundation
- Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research
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Objective: Although severely preterm birth has been associated with impaired neurocognitive abilities in children, follow-up studies in adulthood are scarce. We set out to study whether adults born with very low birth weight (VLBW) (<1,500 g), either small for gestational age (SGA) (birth weight <= -2 SD) or appropriate for gestational age (AGA), differ in a range of neurocognitive abilities and academic performance from adults born at term and not SGA. Methods: As part of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults, 103 VLBW (37 SGA) and 105 term-born control adults (mean age 25.0, range 21.4-29.7 years) without major neurosensory impairments participated in the follow-up study in 2007-2008. The test battery included measures of general cognitive ability as well as executive functioning and related abilities. Academic performance was self-reported. Results: With adjustment for sex and age, the VLBW group scored lower or performed slower than the control group in some indices of all tests (these mean differences ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 SD units, p <= 0.03) and they had received remedial education at school more frequently; however, no differences existed in self-reported academic performance. The differences were evident in both VLBW-SGA and VLBW-AGA groups. Further covariate adjustments for parental education, current head circumference, and head circumference at birth and, in tests of executive functioning and related abilities, adjustment for IQ estimate had minor effects on the results. Conclusions: In comparison with control adults, VLBW adults scored lower on several neurocognitive tests. Poorer neurocognitive performance is associated with VLBW irrespective of the intrauterine growth pattern. Neurology (R) 2011;77:2052-2060
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