Does premature birth have implications for later adult health?

Survival rates for preterm infants have increased dramatically over the last three decades. This is due to many factors: changing populations, better antenatal care including wide use of steroids, improved early respiratory management and nursing care, and better nutritional management. Despite this, impaired neurodevelopment and cognition in later life continue to be the major adverse sequelae of premature birth and this seems likely to remain a major issue for everyone involved in care of the newborn for decades to come. We are getting better but there is a long way to go and an awareness of more subtle cognitive or behavioural problems in adolescence or young adulthood, especially in the extremely preterm infant, is only emerging slowly.