Results of research into the long term outcomes of very tiny babies (birth weight less than 1000g ).

The participants in this group were reviewed at ages 2, 5, 8 and 14 years as part of the Victorian Infant Collaborative Studies. Participants who were born at the Royal Women’s Hospital were also reviewed between 18 and 22 years of age.

The following is a summary of the information sent out to the people who participated in the study as young adults.

When we last caught up with you a few years ago we were particularly interested in growth, blood pressure, and breathing ability. Some of these results from the study have appeared in scientific journals over the last few years, and some have appeared in the general press as well.

The results are summarized here by Prof.Lex Doyle, Paediatrician.

Growth
Despite their tiny size at birth, most young adults who weighed less than 1000g have grown normally and reached expected heights and weights. This was not always the case, however. Most of you started on average with weights only ¼ the size of the non–prem children. By 8-9 years of age you were mostly indistinguishable in height and weight, with only a few cms or a few kilograms difference on average. As you reached the teenage years, weight had caught up to average and height was consistent with your genetic potential (that is, height expectation knowing the height of your parents).

By around 20 years of age there has been little relative change; weight is again average and height is consistent with parents height, which in this group is a little below average for all people in the community. Most have stopped growing but weight may well continue to increase. As is common in all people in the community, there is a tendency to being slightly over weight for height.

Blood pressure
You will all remember wearing the blood pressure machine for a day. I hope it was not too much of a bother.

Most of you had blood pressure readings in the normal range. There were a few individuals where blood pressure is starting to rise at an earlier age than is normally expected. It is possible that the blood pressure of people born prematurely may be higher later in adulthood and so we need to keep monitoring this.

Breathing ability
Most of you needed help with breathing after birth, either from ventilators or with oxygen, sometimes for many weeks.
Most now have breathing test results in the normal range in early adulthood, but as a group some do have trouble getting air in and out of the lungs. Breathing ability peaks in early adulthood and deteriorates over the rest of life - in smokers it deteriorates even faster. In those who were born very prematurely and who smoke, it is deteriorating at an even faster rate. The good news is that most of the deterioration seems to be reversible at this stage, so if smokers are able to give up there should be some recovery of their breathing ability. However, if they continue to smoke the changes will become irreversible over time.

We have really enjoyed getting to know you all over the years and would like to thank you and your families for your previous involvement in this study. We hope to be able to see you again in a few years time to repeat some of these tests. So keep in touch! We love to hear any news from you, feel free to call in if ever you are around Carlton, maybe we can take you an a tour of the Nursery, it certainly is fantastic for the parents of sick babies to see such grown up ex-prems.

If you have any questions or we can help you in any way please don’t hesitate to let us know. You can contact us on the above numbers or by email.

Best wishes

Kate Callanan ( Research Coordinator )
Professor Lex Doyle (Paediatrician)
Brenda Faber (Research Nurse)

Premature Infant Follow up Programme

Back to Top

VICS GROUP 1997

This is a very important group of children because they are part of the Statewide follow up . Every child born in 1997 who was born before 28 weeks or weighed less than one Kg is part of this study, along with a full term child born during the same year.

If your child was born in 1997 you will recall that when we last saw you for the 2 year old check up we had hoped that we would recall all the children again when they reached 5 years of age. We have now decided that it is better to wait until they are around 7 years old. We now feel that we can better assess how the children are developing when they have already been at school for a year or two.

We definitely want to stay in touch, so please let us know if you are moving.

A special thank you to all the families who have already contacted us. We are really looking forward to seeing you all again in the next couple of years.