title: Reading difficulty in school-aged very low birth weight infants in Japan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the prevalence of and the perinatal risk factors related to reading difficulty in school-aged very low birth weight infants (VLBWI) with normal intelligence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were 79 Japanese children in the second to fourth grade of elementary school who had been born at very low birth weight and who regularly visited a follow-up clinic at one of four hospitals. All members had a full-scale IQ score of 80 or higher. Perinatal information was obtained retrospectively from medical records. Each subject underwent four reading tasks, testing monomoratic syllable reading, word reading, non-word reading and short sentence reading. Subjects with an SD reading time score greater than 2.0 in two or more tasks were considered to have reading difficulty (RD). Furthermore we investigated the relations between RD and perinatal factors using logistic regression analysis adjusted for potential confounding factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-five (31.6%) out of 79 subjects had RD. We discovered that treated retinopathy of prematurity (tRoP) was a significant risk factor (adjusted OR=5.80, 95% confidence interval=1.51-22.33).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rate of RD in school-aged VLBWI was higher than the estimated prevalence of dyslexia in Japan. Even in children with normal intelligence, long-term developmental follow-up including support for reading skills is necessary for VLBWI. Further investigation is desired to elucidate the relations between visual problems and RD in school-aged children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Okayama Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Okayama, Japan. Electronic address: gmd18025@s.okayama-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Akihito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.affiliation: Child Development and Learning Research Center, Faculty of Regional Sciences, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan; Department of Clinical Research, Tottori Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tottori, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koeda
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Saga Hospital, National Hospital Organization, Saga, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshimitsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayanagi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kyushu Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Mie Chuo Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tsu, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sugino
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Mie Chuo Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tsu, Japan.
authors.forename: Motoki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonno
authors.affiliation: Center for Clinical Research, Nagoya Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kada
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Okayama Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Okayama Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Misao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kageyama
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D007807:Language Tests; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011932:Reading; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools
keywords: Dyslexia; Premature; Reading difficulty; Very low birth weight infant