Early Birth May Mean Respiratory Problems

(July 28, 2010) - Even being born a week or two early can mean respiratory problems. (Read about "Preterm Labor" "Respiratory System") An analysis of more than 200,000 deliveries finds that compared to infants born at full term, those born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks are more likely to have severe respiratory illness, and this risk decreases with each added week of gestational age during the late preterm period, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Late preterm birth accounts for 9.1 percent of all deliveries and three-quarters of all preterm births in the United States. Considerable evidence suggests that short-term illnesses are prevalent; however, much of the supporting data for this evidence is more than a decade old or drawn from small populations, according to background information in the article.

Researchers conducted a study to determine current rates of respiratory illness among late preterm births through analysis of recent data from a large group of late preterm infants. The study included collection of electronic data from 19 hospitals across the United States on 233,844 deliveries over six years.

Of 19,334 late preterm births, 7,055 (36.5 percent) were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and 2,032 had respiratory compromise. Of 165,993 term infants, 11,980 (7.2 percent) were admitted to a NICU, 1,874 with respiratory illness. The researchers found that respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) was the most common respiratory illness (Read about "Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Infants"), occurring in 10.5 percent of 34-week deliveries, decreasing with gestational age to 0.3 percent at 38 weeks.

Additional analysis found that for babiess born at 34 weeks, the odds of RDS were increased 40-fold and that risk decreased with each advancing week of gestation until 38 weeks. "Even at 37 weeks, the odds of RDS were still 3-fold greater than that of a 39- or 40-week birth," the authors write.

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