Quality of Life in Premature Babies

Abstract

Preterm babies represent a heterogeneous clinical group, whose health state is conditioned by their maturity and the short and long term complications that they sometimes experience as a result of their premature birth. The health and wellbeing of this category of population is the focus of much international effort. Definition of quality of life creates a large debate in medical literature. Since earl’s ’70, hundreds of questioners and methods have been developed in order to measure and/or quantify quality of life. Measuring quality of life in a former premature child is a real challenge. Most of them, despite their poor neurologic outcome and severe disabilities, rate as normal their quality of life in contradiction with their families and physicians perspective. In our opinion, it is important for the medical community to accept, that even if the stated QoL is at odds with the objective assessment by a clinician, it is the perception of the affected individual that should take priority. QoL measures should be integrated in clinical trials, in assessments of long-term outcome of children with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and in treatment decisions on whether to offer intensive care.