Introduction

The term premature birth refers to the condition when the birth of a new born occurs before 37 completed week of gestation. In this regard, it can be stated that in each and every year, the rate of premature birth cases are enhancing around the different countries of the world. In this context, it must be mentioned that, there is higher risk issues among the premature children than that of the children and in various studies the short term and long term effects of the premature birth are identified (Rochman).

 In this essay, the long term effect of the premature birth is discussed in a brief manner with the help of the supportive literatures.

Discussion

Among the various issues faced by the premature babies, one of the crucial problem is associated with the somatic development stage. In the study of Kaczmarcyzk et al. the long term effect of premature birth on the somatic development in women through the adolescence and adulthood phase is examined.  The main objective of this study is to examine the long term effect on the anthropometric measurements of the women in childhood and adolescence period due to premature birth. In this study, all the study subjects have the issue of premature birth; however all of the subjects had the normal body weight at the time of birth.  Most of the child (approximately 85%) was fed on infant formulas and only two children were fed infant formulas along with the breast milk. The study was conducted at an interval of 18 years and the first stage of the study was conducted in the year of 1997 and in the year of 2015 the second stage of study was executed by the researchers. Initially, the seventy girls were included in the study and after 18 years of initial data collection , in 2015 only 13 turned up for the follow up process. The data of the study participants were compared with the data of the 27 normal women assigned as control group of this study.  The anthropometric data of the control and intervention group were compared with each other to find any significant result from the overall study. Along with this, in the second stage of the study, the body composition of the study participants was measured by using the bioelectrical impedance analysis method. The study result showed that there was no significance difference in between the two groups in terms of body components. However, it was found that, the intervention group had higher chances of having fat mass and higher mean waist-hip ratio while compared with the control group.  Hence, the study concluded that, preterm birth has no effect on the somatic development of the girls during childhood and adolescence.

Another study by Odd, Evans and Emond studied the effect of preterm birth on the educational life of the children.  The main aim of this study is to examine the detrimental effect of year entering education in the preterm infants that persists into the adolescence of the children.  It is observed that, the preterm babies are enrolled in the school a year before as  the decision is taken based on their actual birth date rather than their pre-decided birth date. Therefore, it can be stated that, such children may perform worse than that of the children who do not skip a year. In this cohort study, it is reported that, approximately 35 children were included in the preterm group and on the other hand, only 40 children were included in the control group. The comparison study showed that the modifiable effect of going to school a year before than that of the normal birth children has long term consequences in their adolescence and thus limit adulthood opportunities.

The article by Rochman studied about the effects of premature birth on the children. In the longest running US study identified that preterm birth have both good and bad effects. This report also stated that, the effect of preterm birth also continued till adulthood. Along with this, this report also supported the findings of the previous two studies that the preterm birth have effect on the educational life and social life of the individuals. From the physiological perspective it can be said that, the preterm children have higher chances of having various diseases such as asthma, vision related problems, and problems associated with the fine motor skills of the individuals. Along with this, the report also discusses about the fact that children who has preterm birth, they have poorer health condition and higher resting blood pressure than that of the normal individuals. The prematurity can alter the responses to the stress condition of the individuals and along with this learning disabilities is also reported among the premature babies.

 The study of  Grunau reported about the long term effects of repeated procedural pain-related stress in the NICU in terms of brain development, programming of stress management, neurodevelopment, and pain sensitivity in infants who born at very preterm age  (24-32 weeks of gestation). It is reported that, the stress management system is associated with the development of the brain structure and in case of the premature child the alteration in the brain development takes place due to prematurity of the children. Not only this, the premature babies have lower pain threshold than that of the normal children and reduced sensitivity to the heat are also reported among the premature children.

Conclusion

Hence, it can be concluded that the preterm birth has significant negative impact on the health condition of the children. The preterm children have higher chances of having various diseases such as asthma, vision related problems, and problems associated with the fine motor skills of the individuals. However a study found that, preterm birth has no effect on the somatic development of the girls during childhood and adolescence. Moreover, children who have preterm birth, have poorer health condition and higher resting blood pressure than that of the normal individuals.

References

Grunau, Ruth Eckstein. “Neonatal pain in very preterm infants: long-term effects on brain, neurodevelopment and pain reactivity.” Rambam Maimonides medical journal 4.4 (2013).

Kaczmarczyk, Katarzyna, et al. “Long-term effects of premature birth on somatic development in women through adolescence and adulthood.” Journal of International Medical Research 46.1 (2018): 44-53.

Odd, David, David Evans, and Alan Emond. “Preterm birth, age at school entry and long term educational achievement.” PloS one 11.5 (2016): e0155157.

Rochman, Bonnie. “ How Long Do the Effects of Being Born Premature Last?Untill Adulthood.” Family Matters. [Online] (2011).