Objectives
To study sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infections (STCTs), teenage pregnancies, and payment defaults in individuals born preterm as proxies for engaging in risk-taking behavior.
Study design
Our population-based register-linkage study included all 191 705 children alive at 10yr (8492 preterm, 4.4%) born without malformations in Finland between 1/1987-9/1990 as each mother’s first child within the cohort. They were followed-up until young adulthood. We used Cox regression to assess the hazards of STCTs, teenage pregnancies, payment defaults, criminal offending, and substance abuse by gestational age (GA). GA was considered both as a continuous and categorical (extremely-, very-, moderately-, late preterm, early term, post-term, and full-term as reference) exposure.
Results
A linear dose-response relationship existed between GA and STCT and teenage pregnancy; adjusted hazard for STCT decreased by 1.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.7%-2.6%), and for teenage pregnancy by 3.3% (CI 1.9%-4.8%) per each week decrease in GA. Those born extremely preterm (23-27 completed weeks) had a 51% (CI 31%-83%) lower risk for criminal offending than their full-term born counterparts, and those born very preterm (28-31 weeks) had a 28% (CI 7%-53%) higher hazard for payment defaults than those born full-term. GA was not associated with substance abuse.
Conclusions
The lower risk-taking that characterizes people born preterm seems to generalize to sexual and to some extent criminal behavior. Those born very preterm are, however, more likely to experience payment defaults.
Alenius, S., Kajantie, E., Sund, R., Nurhonen, M., Haaramo, P., Näsänen-Gilmore, P., Vääräsmäki, M., Lemola, S., Räikkönen, K., Schnitzlein, D. D., Wolke, D., Gissler, M., & Hovi, P. (2022 in press). Risk-taking behavior of adolescents and young adults born preterm. The Journal of Pediatrics. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.09.032