Children who born prematurely at an extremely low birth weight due to a medical condition called intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), may be at an increased risk of cognitive delay, finds a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden looked at 34 children who had been born prematurely due to IUGR – a condition where the developing fetus weighs less than 90 percent of what it should. They compared these children with 34 children who had been born prematurely but at an appropriate size and 34 children who had been born at full term.
The children who were born with IUGR had an average verbal IQ of 83.8 and an average full-scale IQ of 78.9, when tested between the ages of 5 and 8. The children who were born prematurely but at the appropriate weight averaged 96.0 on the verbal IQ test and 90.1 on the full-scale IQ test. Those children who had been carried to term had an average verbal IQ of 101.3 and an average full-scale IQ of 102.9.
"Children born very preterm after IUGR have an increased risk for cognitive impairment at early school age compared with children delivered very preterm for other reasons," the authors concluded.