Washington: Advances in neonatal care enable two-thirds of premature babies born with respiratory problems to be ready for school at the right age.

However, those living in poverty are far less likely to be ready on time than their better-off peers, according to researchers.

Although several factors, including chronic lung disease, brain hemorrhage, and male gender, were associated with lower school readiness, by far the most powerful factor determining school-readiness level was low socio-economic status.

"The good news is premature babies are surviving. Neonatology has done a remarkable job in lowering mortality without increasing morbidity," said study co-author Jeremy Marks, professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago.

"The bad news is poverty leads to huge disparities in school readiness, with poor kids faring four times worse than others," Marks added.

The finding is based on a study of babies born prematurely with immature lungs that the University of Chicago researchers began in 2000.

The researchers wanted to determine how many of them were ready to begin primary school when they reached school age, and to understand the factors associated with lack of school readiness among these children.

The researchers were able to collect follow-up data on 137 of 167 (81 percent) of the patients born prematurely with respiratory distress syndrome.

"We knew that premature infants are at increased risk for abnormal neuro-developmental outcomes at two years. But we didn't know what factors prevented these children from entering school on time," said Michael Msall, MD, chief of developmental and behavioural pediatrics.

These findings were published in the July issue of Pediatrics. IANS