Babies born prematurely may have significantly higher risk of stroke as young adults — and the earlier the birth, the greater the risk, suggests an extensive new study.
Although people born prematurely have been shown to have higher risk of high blood pressure and other disorders that can lead to stroke, little research has focused on stroke itself, said Dr. Casey Crump, the study’s lead author. Earlier findings also were inconsistent, said Crump, a professor and vice chair for research in the department of family medicine and community health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
So, in what he said is the largest study to look at stroke risk and preterm birth, Crump and his colleagues examined the records of more than 2.1 million people born in Sweden from 1973 to 1994 who lived to at least age 18. That group was reviewed for first-time stroke through 2015, when the oldest was 43 years old.
A full-term pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks. In the study, infants born early preterm (22 to 33 weeks) had a 42 percent higher risk of stroke in adulthood compared to full-term babies. Those born late preterm (34 to 36 weeks) had a 22 percent higher risk. Early-term birth (37-38 weeks) was not associated with increased risk.