Being born a week early has no impact on kids' primary school NAPLAN scores

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-11-18 03:00

Australia; VIC

Photo by Garrett Jackson on Unsplash

Being born at 39 weeks, rather than 40-42 weeks, has no impact on Aussie kids' NAPLAN scores at ages 7-9, according to Australian experts. Being born at 39 weeks is increasingly common, but there have been conflicting studies on the long-term impacts of arriving a week early. This large study, which included data from more than 150,000 kids, found no significant difference in literacy or numeracy scores for kids born at 39 weeks compared to kids born at full term. The authors say the findings should be reassuring to families and clinicians.

Media release

From: JAMA

Educational Outcomes for Children at 7 to 9 Years of Age After Birth at 39 vs 40 to 42 Weeks’ Gestation

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

About The Study: In this study of 155,000 births, using a causal inference framework based on target trial emulation, birth at 39 weeks’ gestation was not associated with adverse numeracy and literacy outcomes at school age compared with birth at 40 to 42 weeks.

Authors: Roxanne Hastie, Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne, is the corresponding author.

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43721)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI)

Funder: Dr Hastie (grant no. 1176922), Dr Tong (grant no. 1136418), Dr Cheong (grant no. 2016390), Dr Walker (grant no. 1183854), and Dr Lindquist (grant no. 1185467) were all supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

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