A Critical Review of Maureen et al, 2002, Outcomes in young adulthood for very-low-

birth-weight infants, The New England J ournal of Medicine, vol. 346, no. 3, pp 149-157.

Using infants birth-weight data, Maureen et al. (2002) conducted a comparison study on a
cohort of 242 survivors among very-low-birth-weight infants which were admitted to
Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital in Cleveland between 1977 and 1979. This research
aimed to assess the level of education, cognitive and academic achievement, and rates of
chronic illness and risk-taking behavior at 20 years of age. The authors used logistic
regression analysis for dichotomous outcomes, and multiple linear regression for the
continuous outcomes. The study reveals that educational disadvantage associated with very
low birth weights which indicate that the neurodevelopmental and growth-related problem
and the poor school achievement that have been reported for very-low-birth weight children
persist into young adulthood. The result agreed with the hypothesized that, as compared with
normal-birth-weight controls, very low-birth-weight young adults would have lower
intelligence, lower levels of educational achievement, and higher rates of chronic health
conditions and risk taking behavior. The results are reassuring; however, further follow-up
will be important to examine the ultimate educational attainment and choice of occupation of
the cohort as they reach mature adulthood. To the extent that this research is exploratory, the
authors found that data have been lacking on the follow-up into adulthood of very-low-birth-
weight survivors of neonatal intensive care in the United States.
In summary, the current study having some contradictions result on the very-low-birth-weight
group (Bjerager et al, 1995; Chilcoat and Breslau, 2000) since lower rates of alcohol and drug
use among very low-birth-weight subjects have not previously been reported. Further studies
must be undertaken and include the adulthood data as well in order to improve our
understanding concerning the outcomes in young adulthood for very-low-birth-weight infants.