Abstract
OBJECTIVES—To assess quality of life (QoL) in a group of young adults born in 1980-1982 with very low birth weight (VLBW) and to compare this with a reference group and a similar cohort born eight years earlier. DESIGN—Telephone interview using a fully structured questionnaire. SETTING—Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit. PATIENTS—VLBW group (n = 92, 90% participation rate), LBW group (n = 119, 86%), normal birth weight/reference group (n = 69, 75%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES—Objective and subjective QoL. RESULTS—Objective QoL in the VLBW subgroup who did not report a handicap or chronic health problem was lower than in the reference group (median 0.79 v 0.84, p = 0.02). Objective QoL was 0.81 in the similar LBW subgroup whereas it was only 0.72 in the group of 13 VLBW and nine LBW subjects who reported a handicap or chronic health problem. Interestingly, subjective QoL did not differ between the VLBW subgroup and the reference group (median 0.87 v 0.88,p = 0.5). On comparing the VLBW subgroup in the 1980-1982 cohort with the similar VLBW subgroup in the 1971-1974 cohort, objective QoL had apparently increased. CONCLUSION—The VLBW young adults had a lower objective QoL than the reference group, whereas the subjective QoL was similar. Objective QoL in Danish youngsters has apparently increased over the past eight years.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (119.4 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bjerager M., Steensberg J., Greisen G. Quality of life among young adults born with very low birthweights. Acta Paediatr. 1995 Dec;84(12):1339–1343. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1995.tb13565.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ericson A., Källén B. Very low birthweight boys at the age of 19. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 1998 May;78(3):F171–F174. doi: 10.1136/fn.78.3.f171. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Greisen G., Petersen M. B., Pedersen S. A., Baekgaard P. Status at two years in 121 very low birth weight survivors related to neonatal intraventricular haemorrhage and mode of delivery. Acta Paediatr Scand. 1986 Jan;75(1):24–30. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1986.tb10152.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Petersen M. B., Greisen G., Kovacs R., Munck H., Friis-Hansen B. Status at four years of age in 280 children weighing 2,300 g or less at birth. Dan Med Bull. 1990 Dec;37(6):546–552. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Saigal S., Feeny D., Rosenbaum P., Furlong W., Burrows E., Stoskopf B. Self-perceived health status and health-related quality of life of extremely low-birth-weight infants at adolescence. JAMA. 1996 Aug 14;276(6):453–459. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Saigal S., Hoult L. A., Streiner D. L., Stoskopf B. L., Rosenbaum P. L. School difficulties at adolescence in a regional cohort of children who were extremely low birth weight. Pediatrics. 2000 Feb;105(2):325–331. doi: 10.1542/peds.105.2.325. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stevenson C. J., Blackburn P., Pharoah P. O. Longitudinal study of behaviour disorders in low birthweight infants. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 1999 Jul;81(1):F5–F9. doi: 10.1136/fn.81.1.f5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stjernqvist K., Svenningsen N. W. Ten-year follow-up of children born before 29 gestational weeks: health, cognitive development, behaviour and school achievement. Acta Paediatr. 1999 May;88(5):557–562. doi: 10.1080/08035259950169594. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]