Children born just a few weeks too early are significantly more likely to have behavioural and/or emotional problems in the pre-school years, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

It is well known that children born very premature (under 32 weeks) tend to have significantly more behavioural and/or emotional problems than children born full term, but it has not been clear what impact birth just a few weeks too early might have.

Few weeks premature gives problems

Seven behavioural/emotional components were assessed, including anxiety/depression, aggression, attention disorders, and somatic complaints -- conditions with no obvious physiological cause. The prevalence of behavioural (externalising; acting out), and emotional (internalising), problems, were also assessed.

The moderately preterm children had higher scores than their term peers on all the measures used, clocking up an average difference in cumulative score of more than four points.

- Our results demonstrate that moderately premature children are more likely to already have behavioural and emotional problems before they enter school," write the authors, who suggest these children may benefit from targeted help.

More children are born few weeks to early

They base their findings on more than 1,500 children whose behaviour and emotional development were assessed at the age of 4, using validated tests. All the children were part of a long term study looking at the growth, development, and general health of children born prematurely (The Longitudinal Preterm Outcome Project or Lollypop).

While the rate of very premature births has remained more or less constant for some time, the rate of moderately premature births has been rising, say the Dutch researchers.