Sharing of lessons learned from multisite research.

Purpose: To highlight key considerations for planning and implementing multisite research based on experiences and reflections in conducting a large, international, multisite study.

Description: Successes and challenges encountered throughout a multisite study process, and collective recommendations for future researchers are presented. Considerations addressed include creation of the research team and a "community of practice," study preparation and management time, approval by institutional review boards, training of future researchers, recruitment and retention of participants, and dissemination and translation of study materials to consumers.

Economic outcomes in young adulthood for extremely low birth weight survivors.

Objective: The goal was to compare educational attainment and labor market outcomes in young adulthood (21-26 years of age) for a Canadian, population-based cohort of 149 extremely low birth weight (ELBW) (<1000 g) survivors and a normal birth weight (NBW) cohort of 133 young adults from the same geographic area who were matched to the ELBW cohort in childhood.

Methods: We estimated the effects of ELBW status, according to gender, on continuous outcomes through least-squares regression and those on binary outcomes through logistic regression. We controlled for family background and considered neurosensory impairment and IQ as mediating variables.

The Move & PLAY study: an example of comprehensive rehabilitation outcomes research.

This perspective article provides an example of a study planned using guidelines for comprehensive rehabilitation outcomes research, an approach that is believed to give service providers meaningful evidence to support practice. This line of investigation has been guided by the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. The short title of a study under way is Move & PLAY (Movement and Participation in Life Activities of Young Children).

Impact of extreme prematurity on family functioning and maternal health 20 years later.

Objective: The goal was to examine the impact of illness on families and the long-term effects on the health of parents of young adults (YAs) who were born with extremely low birth weight (ELBW), compared with normal birth weight (NBW) control subjects.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was performed. Participants were mothers of eligible ELBW and NBW YAs.

Comparison of current health, functional limitations, and health care use of young adults who were born with extremely low birth weight and normal birth weight.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the current health status, physical ability, functional limitations, and health care use of extremely low birth weight and normal birth weight young adults.

Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted of a population-based cohort of 166 extremely low birth weight survivors (501-1000 g birth weight; 1977-1982 births) and a group of 145 sociodemographically comparable normal birth weight individuals. Current health status, history of illnesses, hospitalizations, use of health resources, and physical self-efficacy were assessed through questionnaires that were administered to the young adults by masked interviewers.

Growth trajectories of extremely low birth weight infants from birth to young adulthood: a longitudinal, population-based study.

We compared sex-specific growth attainment of a population-based cohort of 147/166 (89%) extremely low birthweight (ELBW < 1000 g) and 131/145 (90%) sociodemographically comparable normal birthweight (NBW) cohort at young adulthood, and examined the pattern of growth trajectories and correlates of growth at ages 1, 2, 3, and 8 y, and teen and young adulthood (mean age, 23.3 versus 23.6 y).

Self-perceived health-related quality of life of former extremely low birth weight infants at young adulthood.

Objectives: The goals were to compare the self-reported, health-related quality of life of former extremely low birth weight and normal birth weight infants at young adulthood and to determine whether there were any changes over time.

Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, population-based study with concurrent control subjects was performed. We interviewed 143 of 166 extremely low birth weight survivors (birth weight: 501-1000 g; 1977-1982 births) and 130 of 145 sociodemographically comparable, normal birth weight, reference subjects.

Transition of extremely low-birth-weight infants from adolescence to young adulthood: comparison with normal birth-weight controls.

Context: Traditionally, educational attainment, getting a job, living independently, getting married, and parenthood have been considered as markers of successful transition to adulthood.

Objective: To describe and compare the achievement and the age at attainment of the above markers between extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) and normal birth-weight (NBW) young adults.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A prospective, longitudinal, population-based study in central-west Ontario, Canada, of 166 ELBW participants who weighed 501 to 1000 g at birth (1977-1982) and 145 sociodemographically comparable NBW participants assessed at young adulthood (22-25 years).

Stability of maternal preferences for pediatric health states in the perinatal period and 1 year later.

Background: We have previously shown that parents of premature children provided relatively high valuation of their children's health state in adolescence. However, stability of parental preferences for future pediatric health states is unknown during the antenatal and neonatal periods and infancy.

Objective: To determine whether preference-based, health-related quality-of-life scores obtained serially from 2 cohorts (women with high-risk pregnancies [antenatal cohort] and mothers of very low-birth-weight newborns [VLBW cohort]) are stable during the first year after birth.