A new study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that babies who are born premature have an increased likelihood of dying during young adulthood. It has already been established that these youngsters also have increased health risks, including cerebral palsy, when they are first born and between the ages of one and five.

The risks to babies who were born premature are believed to diminish after the child reached the age of five, but the new study found that the risks appeared to come back between the ages of 18 and 36 and cause death by various "causes (including heart disease, respiratory and endocrine disorders) that have a longer latency, or cumulative health effects that take longer to manifest," one of the study's authors told the Wall Street Journal.

The study surveyed 674,820 people born in Sweden in 1973 to 1979 and followed them through 2008. The study defined 28,000 of the subjects as premature, who had less than 37 weeks of gestation and then stayed alive for at least one year.

The researchers were not able to conclude why the premature babies had a higher death risk during early adulthood, but "nutritional abnormalities or hormone alterations that are associated with preterm birth, as well as genetic factors" were assumed to be the cause, the co-author of the said.

However, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that it's important to keep in mind the demographic that was studied. These results are likely only applicable to people born during the dates studied, 1973 through 1979, because of the great advances in neonatal care since then and other changes.

Today, about 12 percent of births in the United States are considered premature, the study reported and "infants born [premature] today may have either better or worse long-term outcomes than the individuals we studied," the authors wrote in the study. Doctors commonly encourage expectant mothers to carry the baby as close to full term as possible unless there are health risks.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "Babies Born Early Face Higher Risk of Death As Young Adults," Katherine Hobson, Sept, 21, 2001.