Over the last 40 years medical advances in the care of newborn babies has resulted in more children surviving very early “preterm” birth than ever before. Being born preterm can cause problems with lung health which continue throughout life, including into adulthood. We know that children born preterm have a higher chance of being admitted to hospital with respiratory infections in the first years of their life, and there is some concern that sending children to day care might cause damage to their lungs due to increased exposure to viral respiratory infections. Families of children born preterm commonly ask doctors about the safety of sending children born preterm to day care due to concerns of contracting viral infections. Unfortunately, there are no studies to provide any evidence about if day care or early life viral infections results in further risk to lung health, and so families and doctors are left uncertain about what to do.
We have followed a group of children born early from their first stay in the NICU, throughout their first year of life, collecting detailed clinical neonatal information, performing functional assessments and detailed health questionnaires and, in a subset, testing regularly for respiratory viruses.
The “Kids INfections and Day care’s Effects on the lungs in those born Early” study (The KINDEE Study), will follow-up these children, now aged between 6 and 9 years old. This study involves detailed assessments of their lung health to determine if having early life respiratory infections impacts lung health, and if attending day care increases this risk.
Additionally, we are investigating the quality-of-life, including health complexities, day-to-day functioning, activities and participation of children born very preterm through interviews with their parents. We hope to better understand the qualitative impacts that preterm birth has on both the individual and the family, to provide more information to aid clinicians in their understanding of these individuals.