Study On Health Related Quality Of Life And Ethical Issues Among 0-6 Year Olds Born Premature

Objective To assess the negative influence of prematurity on childrens' health related quality of life (HRQOL) and its tendency in their initial 6 years of life. By multivariable regression statistics ananlysis to explore the influence factors on preterm infants' outcomes. To investigate parents' perspective of the negative effects of prematurity on childrens' HRQOL and to understant their opinion on medical treatment of preterm infants.Methods 106 premature infants with birth weight <1500 g or birth weight 1500-2000 g and gestational age <32 weeks was choosed from the medical records from June 1999 to June 2005 in Anhui Provincal Children's Hospital and Anhui Provincal Hospital. Another group of 106 normal birth weight infants was also established as the controls using pair matching according to age, gender, habitatand, etc. Childrens' Physical development was measured by anthropometer, and disease burden reported by parents through questionary. Infants-Junior School Students' Social Life Abilities Scale was adopted to evaluate the social adaptive capacity and Gesell Development Diagnosis Scale (GDDS) was adopted to valuate the development quotient of the central nervous system, and we use Parents Symptom Questionnaire (PSQ) to assess the emotional and behavior disorders of 3-6 year olds. To explore the influencing factors on preterm infants' outcomes, a total of 184 newborns were studied, with 132 of them alive and 52 of them dead. We noted information from the case files about their birth status included gender, date of birth, body length, birth weight, gestational age, head circumference and chest circumference, APGAR scores, neonatal diseases, length of stay, cost of hospitalization, maternal pregnancy status etc. In addition, parents were questionaried...