Researchers at the University of Florida studied the cases of 100,000 infants born weighing less than 3.3 pounds (1,500g) or delivered before the 29th week, and found that 8.9 per 1,000 had a heart defect, according to Pediatrics.
However, in the overall newborn population, the rate of serious congenital heart disease was much lower at 2.4 per 1,000 cases.
When the scientists looked at the mortality rate for very low birth weight babies, those without a serious congenital heart disease had a 12.7 per cent one-year mortality rate, compared to 44 per cent for those born with heart defects.
Researchers defined serious congenital heart disease as one of 14 conditions that required surgical or medical treatment before the age of 1.
One doctor noted that in recent decades, there has been dramatic improvement of surgical repair treatments for more common heart conditions, which has enabled a new focus on more challenging health issues for high-risk newborns.