Babies born prematurely are more likely to be hospitalized in infancy

In France, it is estimated that a baby is born prematurely every 8 minutes, which represents almost 8% of births every year. These premature births, i.e. which occur before the 37th week of amenorrhea (SA) or 8 months of pregnancy, are always subject to special control by doctors, especially the first year of life. .

According to a new British study published in British Medical Journal, this risk to the health of premature babies actually persists throughout childhood, although the risk decreases as babies grow. This risk affects all babies born prematurely, even those born at 38 and 39 weeks of gestation (36 and 37 weeks of gestation), which represents many potentially vulnerable babies, according to the researchers.

More than a million premature babies followed

Previous research has already shown that premature births are a major contributor to poor baby health. To better understand the causes, the researchers set out to examine the link between gestational age at birth and hospital admissions up to the age of 10, as well as how admission rates change during childhood.

To do this, they relied on data from more than one million babies born in NHS hospitals in England between 1st January 2005 and 31st December 2006. The babies were followed from birth until 31st December. March 2015, i.e. an average of 9.2 years per child.

During this period, the researchers recorded the number of hospital admissions. They identified 1.3 million, of which 831,729 (63%) were emergency hospitalizations. Just over half (525,039) of the children were hospitalized at least once during the study period.

After taking into account other potentially influencing risk factors, the researchers found that hospital admissions during infancy were strongly associated with gestational age at birth.

A risk even for premature babies

In detail, the researchers could see that, for babies born extremely premature (less than 28 weeks of gestation or 26 weeks of gestation), the risk of hospitalization was about six times higher than that of those born at 40 weeks of gestation ( 38 WA).

When the babies were between the ages of 7 and 10, this infant hospitalization rate was still three times higher than that of babies born at 40 weeks of gestation.

However, the study points out, even babies born a few weeks earlier had a higher hospital admission rate. Thus, being born at 37, 38, and 39 weeks of gestation was associated with a difference in the admission rate of 19, 9, and 3 hospitalizations per 100 person-years respectively during infancy, compared to those born at 40 weeks.

A risk that lasts up to 10 years

The researchers found that this risk of hospitalization associated with gestational age decreased over time, especially after 2 years. However, a risk remains up to the age of 10, even for babies born at 38 and 39 weeks of gestation.

Among the causes of hospitalization detected by the study are mainly infections contracted during childhood. Respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions also accounted for a large proportion of hospitalizations during the first two years of life.

Although this is an observational study and therefore cannot establish the cause of these hospitalizations, the researchers estimate that gestational age at birth “is an important predictor of childhood diseases, people born extremely prematurely are the most at risk of hospitalization in childhood”.