Babies born very prematurely are at greatest risk of hospitalization throughout childhood: Studies-Gender and Relationships

Born before 37 weeks of gestation has a higher risk of hospitalization throughout childhood than born at maturity, an observational study published at the BMJ on Thursday said.

Infectious diseases were the leading cause of over-hospitalization at all ages, but adding respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions, especially in infancy, also accounted for the majority of hospitalizations during the first two years of life, researchers said. Said.

Researchers, including researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, found that gestational age at birth was “a strong predictor of childhood illness, and those born very preterm were hospitalized throughout childhood. The risk is highest. ” Risk decreased as the child grew up, especially after the age of two, but even children born at 38 and 39 weeks gestation, on behalf of many potentially vulnerable children, remained at excess risk until age 10. They said.

Existing evidence suggests that the risk of preterm birth-related illness decreases as the child grows, but at what age this begins to occur and how these changes vary with gestational age at birth. I don’t know if I will.

Researchers investigated the association between gestational age at birth and hospitalization up to age 10 and how hospitalization rates change throughout childhood.

Their findings are based on data from more than one million children born at NHS Hospital in the United Kingdom between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006.

From birth to March 31, 2015 (average 9.2 years per child), we monitored the children. Meanwhile, the researchers analyzed the number of hospitalizations.

Gestational age at birth was analyzed in weeks from less than 28 weeks to 42 weeks. Over 1.3 million hospitalizations occurred during the study period, of which 831,729 (63%) were emergency hospitalizations.

At least once during the study period, more than half (525,039) children were hospitalized.

After considering other potentially influential risk factors such as mother’s age, marital status, level of social deprivation, child’s gender, ethnicity, and month of birth, researchers found that childhood hospitalization was born. We found that it was strongly associated with the gestational age of time.

According to researchers, the infancy hospitalization rate for babies born at 40 weeks was 28 per 100 person-years, which was about 6 times higher for very preterm (less than 28 weeks) babies.

By the time children were 7-10 years old, the hospitalization rate for children born in 40 weeks was 7 per 100 person-years-this number was about three times that of children born in less than 28 weeks, they said. It was.

However, researchers found that even children born weeks earlier had high hospitalization rates.

Born at 37, 38, and 39 weeks gestation was associated with hospitalization rates per 100 man-years in infancy of 19, 9, and 3, respectively, compared to those born at 40 weeks. I did.

The risk of hospitalization related to gestational age decreased over time, especially after the age of two. However, even in children born at 38 and 39 weeks gestation, the excess risk remained until age 10.

This excess risk at 38 and 39 weeks was relatively small, but the high number of babies born worldwide during these gestational ages is likely to have a significant impact on hospital services. The researchers said it suggests.

Since this is an observational study, the cause cannot be determined. Researchers have pointed out some limitations, such as not being able to consider some factors that can affect a child’s health, such as mothers smoking and breastfeeding.

However, this is a large study using data collected regularly over a decade, and the findings are relatively stable after further analysis, suggesting that the results are scrutinized. They said.

(This article is published from the news agency feed without changing the text. Only the headline has changed.)

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