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Impact of malformations on health and kindergarten functioning for very preterm infant survivors

Pediatric Research volume 97, pages 1453–1454 (2025)Cite this article

There is increasing recognition that neonatal intensive care follow-up programs must extend beyond the first 2 years of life, include outcome reports that do not exclude children with genetic disorders or malformations, and include measures that are meaningful and informative for families. These outcome measures need to go beyond standard scores on the Bayley Scales and include information about child functioning in physical, emotional, social and school activities.1,2,3,4 It is in this context that the work of Kim and colleagues in this issue of Pediatrics Research is important.

Their study is entitled: “Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at five years of age for children born very preterm with congenital anomalies.” This multi-national collaboration examines a large data set of regional very preterm infants and includes systematic descriptions of malformations and chromosomal disorders using electronic medical record abstraction.

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Funding

Dr. Msall’s efforts were supported in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (UA6MC32492; U9DMC4290), the Life Course Intervention/Translational Research Network Preterm Research Node, and NIH NICHD R01HD105234. The grant funders did not participate in the writing of this paper, editing its content, or reviewing the final version.

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  1. University of Chicago Medicine: Kennedy Research Center on Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Center for the Science of Early Trajectories, Chicago, IL, USA

    Michael E. Msall

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  1. Michael E. Msall
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Correspondence to Michael E. Msall.

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Msall, M.E. Impact of malformations on health and kindergarten functioning for very preterm infant survivors. Pediatr Res 97, 1453–1454 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-03821-8

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