Prenatal and Neonatal Factors Predicting Sleep Problems in Children Born Extremely Preterm or With Extremely Low Birthweight.

Prematurely born children have been reported to have more sleep problems throughout childhood than children born at term. The aim of this study was to explore if prenatal or neonatal factors can predict sleep problems at age 11 years in children born extremely preterm (EPT). A prospective observational study of all infants who were born EPT in Norway in 1999 and 2000.

Children born extremely preterm had different sleeping habits at 11 years of age and more childhood sleep problems than term-born children.

Aim: This study explored whether extremely preterm (EPT) children had different sleep characteristics in childhood than children born at term and how neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) affected sleep in children born EPT.

Methods: A Norwegian national cohort of 231 children born EPT from 1999 to 2000 and separate study data on 556 children born at term in 2001 were compared. Parental questionnaires mapped the children's current sleep habits at 11 years of age, namely the prevalence of sleep problems throughout childhood until this age and five categories of sleep problems.

Mental Health in Children Born Extremely Preterm Without Severe Neurodevelopmental Disabilities.

Objective: To describe the prevalence and gender characteristics of mental health problems in extremely preterm/extremely low birth weight (EP/ELBW) children without intellectual disabilities, blindness, deafness, or severe cerebral palsy compared with a reference group at 11 years of age.

Methods: In a national cohort of EP/ELBW children, mental health was assessed by parental and teacher report by using the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire, the Swanson, Noland, and Pelham Questionnaire IV (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and a total difficulties score from the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Pervasive rating was defined as both parent and teacher scoring the child ≥95th percentile (≥90th percentile for total difficulties score) of the reference group, which was the population-based Bergen Child Study.