OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to verify the incidence of respiratory morbidity in the first year of life in very low birth weight preterm infants and also to compare the presence of respiratory morbidity in the first year of life according to neonatal risk factors. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study. We studied preterm newborn infants weighing less than 1,500 g and with gestational age less than 34 weeks who were born between 1998 and 2000. During the first year of life, the infants received monthly medical follow-up and during each visit we evaluated the patients considering the presence of obstructive airway syndrome and/or pneumonia and/or hospital admission due to respiratory conditions. The incidence rate of respiratory morbidity in the first year of life was measured. Chi-squared test was used to compare proportions. RESULTS: The cohort was constituted of 97 preterm infants with mean birthweight of 1,113 g and mean gestational age of 28 weeks. The incidence rates of obstructive airway syndrome, pneumonia and hospital admission were 28, 36 and 26%, respectively. The incidence rate of respiratory morbidity was 53%. There was a significant difference between the incidence rates of respiratory morbidity among infants who had a prolonged use of oxygen (83%) and those who did not (43%). CONCLUSION: More than 50% of the infants presented respiratory morbidity in the first year of life and there was a high percentage of pneumonia and hospitalization due to respiratory conditions. Infants who had a prolonged use of oxygen presented with higher respiratory morbidity incidence rate than infants who did not use oxygen for a long period.
Respiratory morbidity; very low birthweight; preterm infant; follow-up
