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 3˘c.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
