title: Neurocognitive abilities in young adults with very low birth weight.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although severely preterm birth has been associated with impaired neurocognitive abilities in children, follow-up studies in adulthood are scarce. We set out to study whether adults born with very low birth weight (VLBW) (<1,500 g), either small for gestational age (SGA) (birth weight ≤-2 SD) or appropriate for gestational age (AGA), differ in a range of neurocognitive abilities and academic performance from adults born at term and not SGA.
  
  
  METHODS
  As part of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults, 103 VLBW (37 SGA) and 105 term-born control adults (mean age 25.0, range 21.4-29.7 years) without major neurosensory impairments participated in the follow-up study in 2007-2008. The test battery included measures of general cognitive ability as well as executive functioning and related abilities. Academic performance was self-reported.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With adjustment for sex and age, the VLBW group scored lower or performed slower than the control group in some indices of all tests (these mean differences ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 SD units, p ≤ 0.03) and they had received remedial education at school more frequently; however, no differences existed in self-reported academic performance. The differences were evident in both VLBW-SGA and VLBW-AGA groups. Further covariate adjustments for parental education, current head circumference, and head circumference at birth and, in tests of executive functioning and related abilities, adjustment for IQ estimate had minor effects on the results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In comparison with control adults, VLBW adults scored lower on several neurocognitive tests. Poorer neurocognitive performance is associated with VLBW irrespective of the intrauterine growth pattern.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pyhälä
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lahti
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heinonen
authors.forename: A-K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pesonen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Strang-Karlsson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hovi
authors.forename: A-L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Järvenpää
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kajantie
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Räikkönen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D055815:Young Adult