title: Very-low-birthweight and term small-for-gestational-age adolescents: attention revisited.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether adolescents with very low birthweight (VLBW) and peers born small for gestational age (SGA) at term are at a disadvantage when attending to or executing tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cohorts of 54 VLBW (<or=1,500 g), 60 SGA and 83 controls were tested with the Knox Cube Test, Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT II), Stroop Colour-Word Test, Trail Making Test (TMT) A & B, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). IQ was estimated using the subtests vocabulary and picture arrangement of WISC III.
  
  
  RESULTS
  VLBW adolescents scored worse than controls on Knox Cube Test, Stroop Colour-Word Test, TMT A & B and WCST, whereas term SGA adolescents only made more non-perseverative errors in WCST and more errors in the interference condition of the Stroop Colour-Word Test. Thirty-two (38.6%) adolescents in the control group had poor performance (< 2 SD) on at least one of the tests compared with 40 (74.1%) VLBW (p<0.01) and 32 (53.3%) SGA adolescents (not significant).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VLBW adolescents are at risk of disadvantage in aspects of attention and/or executive functions. The adverse effects of being born SGA at term appear to be few in these domains of cognitive function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. siri.kulseng@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Siri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kulseng
authors.forename: Aag
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jennekens-Schinkel
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Naess
authors.forename: Pål
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romundstad
authors.forename: Marit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Indredavik
authors.forename: Torstein
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vik
authors.forename: Ann-Mari
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Brubakk
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D009626:Terminology as Topic