Correlates of Low Birth Weight. Psychological Status at Eight to Ten Years of Age

Abstract

ExtractFive hundred low birth weight children and 492 full-term infants were seen when approximately 40 weeks of age for a pediatric-neurologic examination. Of these, 822 provided the data upon which this report is based. To each child, when eight to ten years of age, there was administered ten subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children (WISG), the Bender Gestalt Test and the Wide Range Reading and Spelling Achievement Test. In addition, observations were recorded regarding speech articulation and complexity of grammar. The number of perseveration instances and indications of possible comprehension aphasia observed during the examinations were recorded. The Verbal IQ_, Performance IO_ and Full Scale IO_ scores, as well as the independently obtained Bender Gestalt score, showed increasing impairment with decreasing birth weight. Approximately twice as large a proportion of low birth weight children as of control children fell into the IO_ category (50-79) which is associated with special medical or educational needs. At the ages of six to seven years the results of the Stanford-Binet Test showed an IQ, difference between the low birth weight and full-sized groups of 3.4 points (F = 7.77, 3 and 810 df, p < 0.001), whereas the WISG given at the ages of eight to ten years indicated an IO_ difference of 4.9 points (F = 10.87, 3 and 810 df, p < 0.001) for the same samples of children. Of the twenty psychological measures used to assess development of those who had been premature, relative impairment on 16 were significantly associated with birth weight and one was nearly so at the 0.05 level of significance. When the effect of the presence of indicators of possible neurologic abnormality was removed by analysis of covariance, the statistical significance of the association with birth weight was reduced for each of the variables measured, and only six of the twenty remained with significant assocation. SpeculationFuture research might profitably consider whether performance by adolescents of low birth weight is relatively impaired in scholastic situations. Also, recent research suggests that a low birth weight occurring in conjunction with long gestational periods, may significantly prejudice intellectual capacity. However, there are little longitudinal data regarding this.

Malnutrition, learning, and intelligence.

“…At ages six through seven, IQ scores on the Stanford-Binet test were obtained and at ages eight to nine, WISC IQs are available. At both age levels, lower birth weights were associated with lower IQs (Wiener, et al 1965(Wiener, et al , 1968.…”

“…They therefore, in association with Rider and Harper (1956) undertook a prospective study of a balanced sample of 500 premature infants born in Baltimore in 1952 and compared them with full-term control infants born in the same hospitals who were matched with the prematures for race, maternal age, parity, season of birth and socioeconomic status. Four hundred pairs of cases and controls were still available for study when the children were between six and seven years of age, and examination of the sample indicated that at this age the prematures and fullterm children continued to be matched for maternal and social attributes (Wiener, et al 1965). Findings at various ages persistently showed the prematures to be less intellectually competent than the controls.…”

Psychosocial and Academic Characteristics of Extremely Low Birth Weight (≤800 g) Adolescents Who Are Free of Major Impairment Compared With Term-Born Control Subjects

“…Long-term neurodevelopmental, behavioral, cognitive, and motor sequelae of prematurity have been documented extensively, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] including reports that predate the increase in survival of extremely small and sick infants. [9][10][11][12] In addition to children with frank neurologic and sensory impairment, a spectrum of neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders are more prevalent in formerly premature infants than in their peers throughout infancy and childhood. Sequelae in children followed to school age include deficits in cognition and problems with learning, motor coordination, behavior, and attention.…”

Morphological and behavioral markers of environmentally induced retardation of brain development: an animal model.

“…In fact, many studies are available to show that babies "born too soon or born too small" (46) are at a high risk for developing behavioral disorders, particularly hyperactivity and learning disabilities (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(105)(106)(107)(108)(109), with boys displaying this syndrome more often than girls (46). Since only a small proportion of the high-risk children are diagnosed as suffering from behavioral abnormalities, and some of the potential disorders may be prevented by special care, it may be advisable to screen those at risk for the presence of retarded brain development and its extent by using the magnetic resonance imaging technique.…”

“…In a retrospective study, Pasamanick and Knobloch (36) found that a higher proportion of children with school problems than matched control children had perinatal medical complications, and that their major symptom was hyperactivity. Several large-scale recent studies have established that prematurely born babies and small-for-date babies are at a high risk for developing hyperactivity and/or learning disabilities (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46).…”