Norway (eCanadaNow) - - A long-term study of over 1.2 million people in Norway has revealed some startling issues about premature birth.
The study reveals that people who were born early or premature have a greater tendency to die while in childhood, and were a lot less likely to have children as adults. There appears to be a correlation with a lower level of education later in life also.
The research is the result of premature babies born decades ago, before modern medicine has nearly the advances that it has now. Overall the current risk of death for premature babies born now is very low, and it is believed that many of the situations that are being revealed in this study are the result of older, more archaic medical procedures that have since been modernized.
The study was completed by Norwegian and United States Researchers, and involved 60,564 premature births over the 1.2 million people who were screened. Of the premature births the results were at times quite stark.
People who were born very early, between 22 and 27 weeks involved a greater amount of risk. The rate of mortality in this section of births was 6 times as great as normal up to the age of six. For these early births children were much more likely to die by age 13 than normal birth children.
Research is continuing. “These results are from babies from decades ago, when we didn’t have modern respirators, modern methods, and modern technology. This all means that this has greatly turned around, now in modern medicine,” said Dr. Alan Fleischman.
Dr. Fleischman is a spokesperson for the March Of Dimes, and organization that deals with disabilities and birth defects in children and people.
