Objectives
Preterm children are exposed to many medications in neonatal intensive care units, but little is known about the effect of prematurity on medication use throughout infancy and childhood. We examined prescriptions of cardiovascular medication (CVM), antiseizure medication (ASM), antiasthmatic medication and antibiotics issued/dispensed in the first 10 years of life for very and moderately preterm children compared with term.
Design
Population-based data linkage cohort study linking information from birth records to prescription records.
Setting
Six registries from five countries in the EUROlinkCAT study.
Participants
The study population included 1 722 912 children, of whom 10 820 (0.6%) were very preterm (