Psychiatric diagnoses, emotional-behavioral symptoms and functional outcomes in adolescents born preterm with very low birth weights

Children born preterm with very low birth weight (VLBW; birth weight ≤1,500 g) run risks of neurodevelopmental disorders. Studies of adolescent outcome are relatively few. In this follow-up survey, we examined the emotional-behavioral symptoms, psychiatric diagnoses and functional status in a geographically-based birth cohort of VLBW adolescents (average 13.4 years) as registered in a level III center of a recently developed Asian country. Psychiatric interviews were conducted. Parents were asked to fill out the Child Behavioral Checklist and the Current Status Survey. Results revealed that neonatal survival rate was 75.7% (112/148). In the follow-up, 26.2% of the adolescents required individualized educational plan; 52.5% were with at least one neuropsychiatric diagnosis (e.g. cerebral palsy 24.6%, intellectual disabilities 21.3%, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder 19.7%), and 32.8% of the participants were disabled. Logistic regression found that neonatal sepsis and grade III/IV intraventricular hemorrhage were most predictive of a disabled status in adolescence.