Results
Demographic Characteristics
Demographic characteristics of mothers and their
VPTand PT infants are presented inTable 1. Mothers
of VPT infants had a mean age of 31 years (SD 5)
and mothers of PT infants of 30 years (SD 5).
The gestational age at birth ranged from 24 to 31
weeks (median 29 weeks) in the VPT infants and
from 32 to 36 weeks (median 34 weeks) in the PT infants.
The VPT infants weighed from 508 to 2,263 g,
and the PT infants from 1,365 to 4,125 g. The length
of hospital stay varied from 11 to 101 days in the VPT
infants and from 4 to 40 in the PT infants. The gestational
age and weight at discharge from the hospital
in the VPT infants ranged from 31 to 41 weeks and