Long-term follow-up of mental health, health-related quality of life and associations with motor skills in young adults born preterm with very low birth weight

Table 2 Results of the ASEBA Adult Self-Report at 23 years

	VLBW (n = 34)			VLBW (n = 24) without CP and/or low IQ_est			Control (n = 37)
	Mean	(SD)	p-value vs control	Mean	(SD)	p-value vs control	Mean	(SD)
Syndrome scales
Anxious/depressed	7.0	(6.1)	0.096	7.3	(6.2)	0.095	4.6	(5.7)
Withdrawn	2.4	(3.0)	0.325	2.1	(2.6)	0.669	1.8	(2.3)
Somatic complaints	3.4	(3.4)	0.081	3.0	(2.7)	0.220	2.2	(1.9)
Thought problems	1.8	(1.8)	0.371	1.5	(1.6)	0.861	1.4	(1.8)
Attention problems	7.7	(4.6)	0.013	7.0	(4.3)	0.081	5.2	(3.5)
Aggressive behaviour	3.8	(3.3)	0.205	3.4	(3.3)	0.447	2.7	(3.7)
Rule-breaking behaviour	2.9	(3.1)	0.188	3.0	(3.6)	0.243	2.0	(2.3)
Intrusive	1.7	(1.3)	0.544	1.5	(1.4)	0.386	1.9	(2.0)
Critical items	4.6	(3.4)	0.013	4.6	(3.5)	0.037	2.8	(2.7)
Internalizing problems	12.9	(9.4)	0.042	12.3	(9.1)	0.098	8.6	(7.7)
Externalizing problems	8.3	(6.0)	0.232	8.0	(6.6)	0.412	6.6	(5.7)
Total problems	38.6	(21 .7)	0.048	36.3	(22.2)	0.173	29.0	(18.6)
Adaptive functioning
Friends	10.0	(2.1)	0.059	10.2	(2.0)	0.170	10.8	(1.4)
Family	1.5	(0.4)	0.756	1.5	(0.4)	0.955	1.5	(0.4)
Substance use
Tobacco	3.3	(4.8)	0.688	3.2	(5.2)	0.673	3.9	(6.3)
Alcohol^a	5.5	(5.0)	0.008	6.3	(5.5)	0.036	10.6	(9.8)
Drugs	3.7	(17.3)	0.359	4.9	(20.5)	0.366	1.0	(4.2)
Mean substance use^a	54.1	(2.7)	0.067	54.2	(2.6)	0.119	55.5	(3.3)

^aData missing for one VLBW and two control participants
Raw scores are given for all scales, except mean substance use which is given as T-score. Higher scores indicate more problems on syndrome scales and substance use, while higher scores on adaptive functioning indicate better functioning
ASEBA = Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, VLBW = very low birth weight, CP = cerebral palsy, IQ _est = estimated intelligence quotient
Analyses performed with Students t-test

ISSN: 1477-7525