Around 6% (n= 5000) of all infants are born premature (<37 weeks gestation) in Switzerland each year, with 100 – 120 developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the chronic lung disease of prematurity. Very preterm infants (<32 weeks gestation) face lifelong lung health challenges, including a 3-5x higher risk of wheezing, higher rates of hospitalisations for respiratory infections in the first year of life (50% of those with BPD) and some have long-term lung function decline starting in early childhood. Despite these risk factors, a standardised respiratory follow-up does not exist in Switzerland.
Our long-term objective is to establish the first systematic and standardised respiratory follow-up program for preterm infants in Switzerland, enabling detailed lung health assessment and early risk identification. We aim to assess feasibility and define suitable outcome measures at the University Children’s Hospitals Basel and Bern. We will apply for ethics approval.
We will administer a standardised respiratory health questionnaire to former preterm infants aged 6 – 8 years, incorporating parental concerns and needs of the child’s respiratory health in collaboration with the Elternorganisation Frühchen Schweiz. We will assess lung function in a subset of infants and compare our results with healthy controls from the Bern Basel Infant Lung Development cohort (www.BILD-cohort.ch; ethics approved). Finally, we will correlate questionnaire responses with lung function outcomes.
