The aim
of VICS is to establish the extent of long-term health problems
that occur in the tiniest (those of birthweight <1000 g) and
most premature (those <28 weeks of gestation) survivors born
in Victoria.
The VICS studies have 2 major components:
- Longitudinal health
We want to establish how the health of the survivors changes as
they grow older, from early childhood (age 2 years), to starting
school (age 5 years), in the early school years (age 8 years),
and into high school (age 14 years).
- How the health problems have changed as care before
and after birth has evolved over time.
This is particularly important as survival rates for babies of
birthweight 500-999 g born in Victoria have increased from <10%
in the 1960s, to 25% in the late 1970s, to 38% in the mid-1980s,
to 56% in the early 1990s, and to 72% in the late 1990s. There
are obviously many more survivors today, and the health outcomes
for those born 20-30 years ago may not be relevant to the tiniest
survivors born today. Consequently we need to study further children
born in the 2000s.
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