Because their organs have not had as much time to develop, these tiny babies are at the highest risk for disabling health problems, and doctors and families often struggle to decide what life-saving measures should be taken, if any, Morse said. On average, these babies had a less than 27 percent chance of survival. The higher the weights and developmental ages were at birth, the more survival rates increased for all babies.Ībout 1,500 babies included in the study were extremely premature, born when their mothers were less than 24 weeks pregnant. The influence of gender and race on babies' survival rates was more noticeable the smaller the infants were, the research shows. UF researchers studied vital statistics from 5,076 babies born in Florida between 19 and weighing less than 1,000 grams. There are differences based on race and gender, so we can't group all these babies together and say survival at less than 1,000 grams is X-percent." "Not all babies are the same, especially with regard to survival at this early gestational age. "I'm trying to get as much information as I can before the baby is born to give the parents a realistic expectation of survival," he said. Having accurate data can help families and doctors make better decisions at a time when choices can be hard to make, he said. Only about 1 percent of all babies born weigh less than 2 pounds, and one of the first questions parents of these infants ask is if their child will live, said Morse, who as a neonatologist works with families every day. Nationwide, nearly a half million babies are born prematurely each year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Morse and other researchers from the UF Maternal Child Health Education and Research and Data Center also analyzed the infants' developmental ages and weights at birth, combining these data with race and gender to specify the odds of survival for babies born in each demographic. But quantifying that and finding if there was a statistical significance had yet to be done." "We have known in general that females tend to have better survival rates than males and blacks better than whites. "When you're talking about survival, that's very significant," Morse said. Overall, black baby girls were twice as likely to survive compared with white baby boys, 1.8 times more likely to survive than black boys and 1.3 times more likely to live than white baby girls. Girls had nearly twice the odds of surviving as baby boys did, and black infants also had a slight survival advantage over whites, the research shows. Morse, M.D., M.P.H., a UF assistant professor of pediatrics and the article's lead author.īaby girls of both races had the strongest advantage when born weighing less than 1,000 grams, about 2 pounds or as much as a quart of milk, Morse said. It's the first scientific evidence of a phenomenon doctors have observed for years, said Steven B. Analyzing data from more than 5,000 premature births, UF researchers pinpointed a link between gender and race and the survival rates of babies born at extremely low weights, according to findings released today (Jan.
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