A recent study suggests that babies born before 26 weeks’ gestation have a high prevalence of neurological and developmental disabilities by the time they reach age 6.
More than 240 school-age children from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland who were born prematurely in 1995 were studied between Jan. 2001 and July 2003. Researchers found that 41 percent of those children had some form of cognitive impairment, with 22 percent demonstrating severe learning disabilities by age 6.
The study was published in the January 6, 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
