Analysis of worldwide research shows that despite advances in neonatal care, preterm babies have lower lung function throughout their life.
A review of existing research on lung function in individuals born preterm found that whilst there have been overall improvements in lung function due to advances in neonatal care, individuals born preterm continue to have lower lung function throughout their life compared to babies born full-term.
Furthermore, the research review showed that where a baby is born can have an impact on their lung function outcomes, with preterm born babies in Scandinavian countries having better lung function outcomes than babies born in similarly economic developed countries.
Co-authored by Dr James Gibbons (pictured), who works with the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre, the research paper was recently published in JAMA Pediatrics, which is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
Dr Gibbons provided some further insight into this paper, and how it contributes to future research around the impact of preterm birth on lung health outcomes:
How did you approach this research?
The paper was a systematic review and meta-analysis. As the name suggests, the investigators undertook a systematic, or step by step, approach to review the existing publications on lung function in individuals born preterm. If these publications met certain criteria, then their results were included in a pooled analysis that allowed the investigators to compare and contrast data from several different studies.
What did the research show?
The investigators found that whilst there have been overall improvements in lung function due to advances in the care provided to babies born early, they continue to have lower lung function throughout childhood and adulthood compared to babies born full-term.
Furthermore, where a baby is born can have an impact on their lung function outcomes, with preterm born babies in Scandinavian countries having better lung function outcomes then babies born in similarly economic developed countries.
Now that we know this, what are the next steps following this study?
There is still a lot of work to be done to understand the long-term lung health outcomes of individuals born preterm. It is still unknown as to why some preterm born babies, such as those born in Scandinavian countries, have better lung function outcomes than others, and what can be done to improve lung function so that babies born preterm can enjoy lung health comparable to their term born peers.
PELICAN (Prematurity’s Effects on the Lungs in Children and Adults Network) is an international collaboration co-led by Associate Professor Shannon Simpson which aims to develop a global repository of preterm lung health data.
We hope by sharing data, as well as the knowledge and expertise of our collaborators, PELICAN will be in a better position to address some of these unanswered questions.
What is the impact of this paper?
Systematic reviews are an established and well-regarded method for assessing and summarising the current status of a specific area of research.
This paper suggests that there is still further work to do in determining what impacts poorer lung function in people born prematurely. The analysis of big data sets, which PELICAN plans to carry out, is a potential way of improving our understanding of preterm lung health.
Each year, 11% (15 million) of the world’s babies are delivered before 37 weeks’ gestation. More than two million of these babies are very preterm (less than 32 weeks’ gestation) and are at increased risk of chronic lung disease.
The Children's Lung Health Team at the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre investigates lung growth and development through infancy, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, in health and in chronic lung disease, and the impact of preterm birth on lung health outcomes.
Congratulations Dr Gibbons for your contribution to this research paper.