Premature babies likely to end up with low-paying jobs in adulthood, study finds

Babies who were born premature don’t grow up to be as financially strong as most adults, according to scientists. They also said that this was because they were more likely to end up in lower-paid jobs because of poor numeracy skills.

Professor Wolke of the University of Warwick and his team analysed data from two large studies, the National Child Development Study and the British Cohort Study as part of their research, according to reports by the Daily Mail. They focused on data for all individuals in the studies, who were born at between 28 and 42 weeks gestational age, and who had available information relating to their wealth at age 42.

The results revealed that in both groups – from 1958 and 1970 – children born premature tended to have lower wealth by the time they reached 42. The researchers also noted that participants born early also showed lower educational qualifications in adulthood compared to those who were born full-term.

The study was published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.