At school age, in children born prematurely and with BPD, we evaluated the hypothesis that pulmonary morbidity would be higher and cognitive function lower in BPD (Group A) vs non-BPD preterm, born children of similar birth weight and gestational age (Group B), and term born children (Group C) matched for age and gender. Group A had higher incidence of pneumonia at all ages p<.01, and of bronchitis beyond 5 years, p<.05 than groups B or C. Group A children were less active than those in Group C, p<0.05. Hollingshead score for the whole population was inversely correlated and the Verbal IQ, r=.54 p=0.0005, Performance IQ, r=.47, p=0.003, and full scale IQ r=.522, p=.0009. But, socioeconomic status did not contribute significantly to the difference in Performance and Full Scale IQ scores between the BPD and full term control groups. There were no differences between Groups A and B in the percentage of children with borderline or low IQ scores, but Group B children had a higher proportion of low scores than Group C children. We conclude 1) subclinical pulmonary dysfunction in BPD children persists at school age and may limit their exercise tolerance. 2) Lower intelligence scores in BPD children may be to be related to prematurity and perinatal events rather than pulmonary disease. Table

Table 1
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