Educational disabilities of neonatal intensive care graduates.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the relationship between perinatal and sociodemographic factors in low birth weight and sick infants hospitalized at regional neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and subsequent educational disabilities.


METHODS
NICU graduates born between 1980 and 1987 at nine statewide regionalized level III centers were located in Florida elementary schools (kindergarten through third grade) during academic year 1992-1993 (n = 9943). Educational disability was operationalized as placement into eight mutually exclusive types of special education (SE) classifications determined by statewide standardized eligibility criteria: physically impaired, sensory impaired (SI), profoundly mentally handicapped, trainable mentally handicapped, educable mentally handicapped, specific learning disabilities, emotionally handicapped, and speech and language impaired (SLI). Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of placement in SE for selected perinatal and sociodemographic variables.


RESULTS
Placement into SE ranged from .8% for SI to 9.9% for SLI. Placement was related to four perinatal factors (birth weight, transport, medical conditions [congenital anomalies, seizures or intraventricular hemorrhage] and ventilation), and five sociodemographic factors (child's sex, mother's marital status, mother's race, mother's educational level, and family income). Perinatal factors primarily were associated with placement in physically impaired, SI, profoundly mentally handicapped, and trainable mentally handicapped. Perinatal and sociodemographic factors both were associated with placement in educable mentally handicapped and specific learning disabilities whereas sociodemographic factors primarily were associated with placement in emotionally handicapped and SLI.


CONCLUSIONS
Educational disabilities of NICU graduates are influenced differently by perinatal and sociodemographic variables. Researchers must take into account both sets of these variables to ascertain the long-term risk of educational disability for NICU graduates. Birth weight alone should not be used to assess NICU morbidity outcomes.
College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0296, USA.
M B
MB
Resnick
S V
SV
Gomatam
R L
RL
Carter
M
M
Ariet
J
J
Roth
K L
KL
Kilgore
R L
RL
Bucciarelli
C S
CS
Mahan
J S
JS
Curran
D V
DV
Eitzman
D001724:Birth Weight; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome