URI_Research_Magazine_2009-2010_Melissa-McCarthy

Enhancing Economic Development in Rhode Island

Discovering the Long-Term Outcomes of Premature Birth

Approximately half a million infants are born prematurely every year. In fact, fifty to seventy percent require a range of specialized services as they grow. Annually, costs related to premature births are more than $2 billion. University of Rhode Island Nursing Professor Mary Sullivan, PhD, RN, is working to answer questions regarding what happens to premature infants’ health and medical issues as they get older. Funded by a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Sullivan is conducting a unique study tracking the long-term health and developmental outcomes of premature infants from birth through young adulthood. It is the only study of its kind in the United States, and her research may enable health care providers and parents of premature infants to prepare for the challenges ahead. Sullivan is also an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a research scientist at Women & Infants Hospital’s Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk. She is working on this study with co-investigators Robin Miller, PhD, RN, of the Brown Center for Children; Barry Lester, PhD, director of the Brown Center for Children; James Ziegler, MD, of Rhode Island Hospital Pediatric Heart Center; and Michael Msall, MD, chief of neurodevelopmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Their research group is comprised of 213 preterm infants to age 23, all born between 1985 and 1989 at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.

“Through this research, we have been learning about the trouble spots that preterm infants have experienced throughout their lives,” said Sullivan who became involved in the original studies in 1990 while earning her doctoral degree. “The unique examination of this group has allowed us to examine and describe, over a period of time, the challenges they faced and how they were resolved. Ultimately, we hope that this may provide guidance to parents of premature infants and inform professionals such as the physicians, nurses, and physical and occupational therapists providing care.” Specifically, the study examines the successes and challenges that this group of preterm infants encounters, and how medical, social and other factors influence their growth and development. A look at this longitudinal database of young adults is intended to allow professionals to make accuratepredictions about thenecessity, timingand content of interventions required to promote, support and sustain normal development. Some of the assessment tools used in this study include the biomarkers of blood chemistry, pulmonary function testing, cardiopulmonary response to exercise and metabolic functioning, and HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis) function by salivary cortisol. The intent is to show whether prematurity impacts health and how early disease onset could be explained by alterations in HPA function.

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