Daycare is associated to higher problems in preterm infants with chronic lung illness: Study

Attending daycare during the first three years of life is associated with an increase in lung difficulties among children born preterm and diagnosed with a kind of chronic lung disease, according to a recent study.

The research was published in the journal ‘The Journal of Paediatrics.’ The study indicated that preterm children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) who attended daycare were more likely to visit the emergency room, take systemic steroids, and have persistent respiratory problems than children who did not attend daycare.

“We are always looking for ways to minimise exposures in early childhood to prevent lung function problems in adult life,” said lead author Sharon McGrath-Morrow, MD, MBA, Associate Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine and leader of the Post-preemie Lung Disease Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“This study demonstrates that daycare is a modifiable risk factor associated with worse outcomes in preterm children with BPD,” he continued. Several previous research have found a link between daycare attendance and an increased risk of respiratory problems in children with extremely low birth weight. However, because those research focused on a specific centre or site, the findings were not generalizable throughout the community.

The researchers collected registry data from nine tertiary care facilities in the United States that participate in the BPD Collaborative Outpatient Registry to further assess the influence of daycare exposure on respiratory infections in children with BPD. Researchers collected data on daycare attendance, clinical features, acute care usage, and chronic respiratory symptoms from 341 former preterm children with BPD between the ages of 0 and 3.

Preterm children with BPD who attended daycare were three times more likely to visit the emergency department and four times more likely to receive systemic steroids, according to the study. However, because those research focused on a specific centre or site, the findings were not generalizable throughout the community.

The researchers collected registry data from nine tertiary care facilities in the United States that participate in the BPD Collaborative Outpatient Registry to further assess the influence of daycare exposure on respiratory infections in children with BPD. Researchers collected data on daycare attendance, clinical features, acute care usage, and chronic respiratory symptoms from 341 former preterm children with BPD between the ages of 0 and 3.

Preterm children with BPD who attended daycare were three times more likely to visit the emergency department and four times more likely to receive systemic steroids, according to the study.  “Providers should educate families with newborns and young children with BPD about the possible dangers of daycare attendance, particularly prior to the age of one year,” he concluded, “while also keeping the family’s financial requirements in mind.”