Abstract
POPS is a collaborative survey of very preterm (<32 weeks) and/or VLBW (<1500g) infants, born alive in the Netherlands in 1983. Out of 1338 study infants, 340 died during the initial hospital stay and 29 between discharge and the corrected age of 2 years. At that age, 942 infants were seen by their paediatricians to assess the presence of handicaps. Of 478 boys, 44 (9.2%) presented with a major handicap and 61 (12.8%) with a minor handicap. In 464 girls however, this was 15 (3.2%) and 50 (10.8%) respectively.
After correction for 11 potential confounders such as gestational age and birthweight (by using logistic regression analysis), male gender was significantly associated with an increased risk of handicap (odds ratio 1.7, 95% confidence interval 1.2-2.4; p<0.01). In contrast to the mortality risk during hospital stay, that did not show any difference1 between the sexes, male gender is shown to be an important risk factor for sequelae of very preterm birth and VLBW.
1 Verwey RA, Verloove-Vanhorick SP, Brand R, Ruys JH. The male disadvantage in very low birthweight (VLBW) infants: does it really exist? Pediatr Res 1987; 22: 225.
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Verloove-Vanhorick, S., Van Zeben-Van Der Aa, D., Verwey, R. et al. 50 THE MALE DISADVANTAGE IN VERY LOW BIRTHWEIGHT (VLBW) INFANTS: SEQUELA AT 2 YEARS. Pediatr Res 24, 269 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198808000-00076
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198808000-00076