Nine‐year Follow‐up of Infants Weighing 1 500 g or Less at Birth

Abstract

A 9-yr follow-up of 116 children born consecutively in 1971-1974 with a birthweight of 1500 g or less showed that 59 had died. Of those who were alive, 4 had severe motor and/or mental handicaps and 3 were blind because of retrolental fibroplasia. The low birthweight children without severe handicaps had impaired motor function, speech defects and impaired school achievement more often than the controls. There was a significant correlation between the test results at the age of 5 and 9 yr, which indicates that children with school failure can be recognized and early remedial treatment started before school or on starting school.