Premature babies are more likely to be less intelligent, do worse at school and end up in lower-paid jobs than those born at full term, new research shows.
An analysis of the circumstances of more than 15,000 British adults also found that those born prematurely are much more likely to become unemployed, be less wealthy and not own a house.
The findings, from research led by Prof Dieter Wolke of Warwick university, are significant because they show that people being born prematurely are more likely to suffer financial as well as health consequences.
Wolke and his colleagues looked in detail at how two cohorts of children born between 28 and 42 weeks in 1958 and 1970 fared in adulthood. In both groups, premature babies had usually accumulated fewer qualifications and less wealth by the age of 42 than full-term peers.
They were also more likely to be working manual jobs, to be out of work, or to have run into financial problems than the others.
For example, 32.5% of adults in the 1970 cohort who were born preterm became manual workers, compared to 25% of those born full-term. Similarly, 3.3% of premature babies were unemployed when their life progress was tracked in adulthood, compared to 2.5% of full-termers. The 1958 group displayed a similar breakdown.
The poor educational attainment, especially in mathematics, of those born before 37 weeks emerged as a key factor in adulthood.
“Together these results suggest that the effects of prematurity via academic performance on wealth are long-term, lasting into the fifth decade,” said Wolke, a psychological scientist.
“This study is of importance because it could be used to flag up the need for extra support at school for children who are born preterm,” he added.
“Basic mathematical skills are increasingly important in modern jobs. Being able to identify cognitive problems early on could result in specialist, tailored education being developed to help prevent these children underachieving at school and later on as adults.”
Maartje Basten, a co-author, added: “What is perhaps most surprising is that most of the children we studied were not very preterm – born, on average, only five weeks early – and still we find these long-lasting effects.”
The results of the study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, have been published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
About one in 14 babies in Britain is born before 37 weeks, with most arriving (93%) after 28 weeks.
The rate of premature birth is steady at 7.3%, though motherhood at 40 or over and multiple birth are both risk factors for prematurity. Tommy’s, the baby charity, says that 10% of premature births in England and Wales in 2012 were to mothers aged at least 40, compared to just 6.8% of those for mothers aged 20 to 24.
While 6% of babies born on their own were preterm, the figure was 56% for multiple births.
Professor Steve Thornton, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: “Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely each year in the UK and many suffer lifelong consequences as a result. The rate of preterm births has increased over the last 20 years.
“This is due to multiple factors including; more complex pregnancies, increased maternal age and greater use of infertility treatments.”
The new study “adds to the existing body of evidence around the long term impacts of preterm birth on academic ability and educational attainment in childhood and wealth in adulthood”, he added.
“NHS staff must do their best to identify women at risk of a premature birth and treat them to reduce that possibility. It is vitally important that pre-term children receive appropriate physical, psychological and academic support throughout their childhood”, he said.
