TY - JOUR

T1 - School grades and educational attainments of adolescents and young adults born preterm

AU - Alenius, Suvi

AU - Kajantie, Eero

AU - Sund, Reijo

AU - Nurhonen, Markku

AU - Haaramo, Peija

AU - Näsänen-Gilmore, Pieta

AU - Lemola, Sakari

AU - Räikkönen, Katri

AU - Schnitzlein, Daniel D.

AU - Wolke, Dieter

AU - Gissler, Mika

AU - Hovi, Petteri

N1 - Funding Information: Supported by the Academy of Finland (Skidi-Kids program for 2010–2013 and Grants 127437, 129306, 130326, 134791, 263924, 274794, and 315690 to E.K., and Clinical Researcher Grant 288966 to P.Ho.; and Grant 1324596 to K.R.); European Commission (Horizon2020 award 733280 RECAP Research on Children and Adults Born Preterm to E.K., K.R. and D.W.); the Doctoral Programs of public Health, University of Helsinki (S.A.); the Finnish Foundation for Pediatric Research (to E.K. and P.Ho.), the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation (to S.A., E.K. and P.Ho.); the Alli Paasikivi Foundation (to P.Ho.); the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation (to E.K.); the Juho Vainio Foundation (to E.K. and S.A.); Norface DIAL Programme project 462-16-040 Premlife Life Course Dynamics after Preterm Birth (to Drs. E.K., K.R., D.S., D.W. and S.L.); the Novo Nordisk Foundation (to E.K.); the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research (to E.K. and P. Ho.); the Emil Aaltonen Foundation (to E.K. and P.Ho.); the Paulo Foundation (to S.A.); the Finnish Medical Foundation (to S.A.); the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation (to S.A); the Alfred Kordelin foundation (to S.A.); and UKRI Frontier Research Grant (ERC-AdG reviewed) EP/X023206/1 (to D.W.). The study funders had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; writing, preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Acknowledgments: The authors thank perinatologist Anneli Pouta, PhD (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland) and perinatologist Marja Vääräsmäki, PhD (Faculty of Medicine, PEDEGO Research Unit, MRC Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland), for their valuable contribution, including participation in the administrative process, at the initial stage of the project.

PY - 2023/1/5

Y1 - 2023/1/5

N2 - Attendance in special education (SE) is more common among individuals born preterm than among those born at term. Less is known about school grades of those born preterm in mainstream education (ME), and how these grades predict later educational attainment. This population-based register-linkage study assessed (1) attendance in SE, and then focused on those in ME by assessing (2) school grades at 16 year, (3) completed educational level at 25 year, and (4) school grades as predictors for completed education by gestational age (GA) with full-term birth (39–41 completed weeks) as reference. The sample comprised 223,744 individuals (10,521 preterm, 4.7%) born in Finland (1/1987–9/1990). Of the sample, 4.9% attended SE. Those born preterm had up to 5.5-fold rates for SE. In ME, those born extremely preterm (EPT) had marginally lower mathematics grades compared with full-term counterparts, whilst those born late preterm or early term had slightly higher grades. Those born EPT or very preterm had lower physical education grades in ME. However, the minor differences in school grades according to GA appear not to translate into educational differences in young adulthood. The associations between school grades at 16 year and completed education at 25 year did not vary by GA.

AB - Attendance in special education (SE) is more common among individuals born preterm than among those born at term. Less is known about school grades of those born preterm in mainstream education (ME), and how these grades predict later educational attainment. This population-based register-linkage study assessed (1) attendance in SE, and then focused on those in ME by assessing (2) school grades at 16 year, (3) completed educational level at 25 year, and (4) school grades as predictors for completed education by gestational age (GA) with full-term birth (39–41 completed weeks) as reference. The sample comprised 223,744 individuals (10,521 preterm, 4.7%) born in Finland (1/1987–9/1990). Of the sample, 4.9% attended SE. Those born preterm had up to 5.5-fold rates for SE. In ME, those born extremely preterm (EPT) had marginally lower mathematics grades compared with full-term counterparts, whilst those born late preterm or early term had slightly higher grades. Those born EPT or very preterm had lower physical education grades in ME. However, the minor differences in school grades according to GA appear not to translate into educational differences in young adulthood. The associations between school grades at 16 year and completed education at 25 year did not vary by GA.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145645695&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-27295-4

DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-27295-4

M3 - Article

C2 - 36604570

AN - SCOPUS:85145645695

VL - 13

JO - Scientific reports

JF - Scientific reports

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

M1 - 231

ER -