Original ArticleAutism Spectrum Disorders in Extremely Preterm Children
Section snippets
Methods
All babies born <26 weeks gestation in the United Kingdom and Ireland from March through December 1995 were recruited to the EPICure Study. Of 307 survivors at 11 years of age, 11 (4%) moved abroad, and the parents of 77 (25%) did not respond or declined consent. The remaining 219 children (71%) were assessed (median age, 10 years 11 months; age range, 121-145 months). Longitudinal data were available for 213 and 202 children who were also assessed at 2.5 years and 6 years, respectively.
At 6
Results
Extremely preterm children not assessed (n = 89) at 11 years of age were more likely to be born at 25 weeks to unemployed parents of non-white ethnic origin and to have more frequent cognitive impairment at 2.5 years of age and 6 years of age than children who underwent assessment (n = 219).20 Extremely preterm children with missing SCQ (n = 36) and DAWBA (n = 18) assessments had lower IQ scores (15 and 5 points, respectively); these differences were 0 (n = 16) and 4 (n = 10) points for
Discussion
This large population-based study confirms that extremely preterm children are at increased risk for autism spectrum symptoms and disorders. The prevalence of narrowly defined autistic disorder is approximately 65-times higher than community populations, and the prevalence of ASD are 4- to 12- times higher.2, 24 As hypothesized, the prevalence of diagnoses in this study is higher than in other studies of ASD in VLBW/LBW children.10, 11 This is likely because of the increased risk of cognitive
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Funded by the Medical Research Council, London, UK. The study sponsor was not involved in design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, writing of the report or decision to submit for publication. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.