Patients in Every Practice: Health Status and Health Experiences of an International Sample of Adults Born Preterm.
Michelle M Kelly, Kathyrn King, Caitlyn Ng and 2 others
PMID 42740384WHAT IT FOUND
Most participants born preterm reported ongoing health concerns, yet 67% had never been asked about preterm birth.
Concerns were similar across gestational ages and birth eras, and respiratory, mental health and neurodevelopmental symptoms were common.
Key findings
0178.8% of participants said health was an ongoing concern, 85.7% reported chronic conditions or symptoms, and 75% took one or more medications.
0267% of participants had never been asked about preterm birth as adults, but 82% had shared their preterm birth history with healthcare teams.
03Respiratory conditions were the most frequently reported category (39 participants), followed by mental health conditions (38 participants).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was recruited through advocacy groups and social media, so adults who already feel preterm birth affects their health may be overrepresented. The sample was 80 people, and some subgroup cells were small, so comparisons may be unstable. Health conditions and symptoms were self-reported without formal diagnosis, so other causes may be present. The study compared adults born preterm within gestational age and birth-era groups, not adults born at term, so it cannot show that preterm birth caused the reported problems. Multiple statistical comparisons were made without adjustment, so some significant differences could be chance findings. Most participants were female (86.2%) and from the United States (69%), which limits generalisation to other groups. The sample included more people born before 32 weeks (77.5%) and more people born before 1990 (66.2%) than the authors describe as typical for this sample. Open-ended responses were not fully analysed in this paper.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest and no funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that preterm birth caused these symptoms or that asking about birth history improves outcomes. The study was a self-report survey without a term-born comparison group and did not test any clinical intervention.