Current status and changes in family, child health, school, and environmental resources of families of very low birth weight infants

The purpose of this longitudinal panel study was to describe the current status and changes in family, child health, school, and environmental resource variables in a group of families with children who were born very low birthweight (VLBW). The children (as VLBW infants) and their families were originally followed between 1982 and 1985 as participants in a clinical trial examining earlier hospital discharge and nurse specialist home follow-up. The follow-up sample consisted of 47 families and 52 children (five sets of twins), representing 65.5% of the original study sample. Personal interview of the mother or custodial relative was conducted for all families using a structured interview schedule. Additionally, chart review was conducted at Children\u27s Hospital of Philadelphia on 45 (77.5%) of the children to validate interview data. Data from the two study periods were compared for changes from birth to follow-up. Analyses using the McNemar test for paired data found changes in maternal education and employment status to be statistically significant (p $\u3c$.01). Many mothers had pursued further education and many more were employed at follow-up. In general, the families\u27 financial status was improved also. Although generally healthy, half of the children were inadequately immunized, nearly one-third of them had mild chronic health problems, and 42% had repeated at least one grade in school. Only two children received early intervention. Children who were behind in grade level were more likely to be African-American, have mothers who were 17 years of age or less at the time of their first child\u27s birth and had less than a high school education, and be living with custodial relatives. Such children were also less likely to have attended preschool. The results suggest that these children remain at long-term risk for problems in health and school. Implications for future research were discussed