Objectives: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common complication of preterm birth, which can have life-long effects. Commonly used definitions of BPD severity are based on respiratory support at 36 weeks post-menstrual age. The utility of these definitions for tertiary referral centers outside the initial birth hospitalization is unclear.
Study design: Retrospective cohort study of infants born < 34 weeks gestation in the BPD Collaborative registry using three common definitions of BPD severity at 36 weeks post menstrual age and associated their severity with outpatient respiratory outcomes during the first 3 years of life.
Results: BPD severity by all three definitions was applied to 608 patients. Although the definitions had different distributions of BPD severity for the cohort, a majority of participants (75.7%) had moderate/Grade 2 or severe/Grade 3 BPD irrespective of the definition. Using clustered logistic regression models, we found no association between any of the definitions of BPD and outpatient acute care use or the BPD control score.
Conclusions: In this multi-center cohort study, we did not observe a significant association between BPD definitions and respiratory morbidity following the initial birth hospitalization. Alternative risk-based BPD definitions that can be integrated into the care of preterm infants following discharge need to be developed.
Keywords: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia; Chronic lung disease of prematurity; Prematurity.
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