School age outcome in low birth weight preterm infants.

Very low birth weight (VLBW) children at school age show variability in their outcome, compared with normal birth weight children, although many early physical and health differences are equalized by middle childhood. Studies of nonhandicapped VLBW children have found a higher rate of school retention and school problems in this population. Differences in intelligence have been reported, although these are often confounded by socioeconomic factors such as educational level of the parent. Few studies today of children born in the late 1970s and early 1980s have related school age outcome to central nervous system (CNS) status, yet for learning disabilities or other neuropsychological deficits, this may be highly relevant. Better understanding of medical risk factors, however, will not affect the decisive influence of social factors on their expression in the school age child.