Prematurity has a significant but potentially reversible impact on cardiovascular and muscular health in adulthood. Such are the findings of a promising study led by Dr. Anne Monique Nuyt and Dr. Thuy Mai Luu, a pair determined to give preterm babies the best chance to grow up healthy.
Physical activity can pose additional challenges for people who are born preterm. Those who spent longer in intensive care as newborns appear to have an even greater reduction in exercise capacity.
According to this new study, this condition could be partly reversible. Like individuals born full-term, adults born preterm may be able to improve their cardiovascular health by being more active and adopting healthy lifestyle habits.
“It’s very encouraging news! There have been studies that demonstrate the benefits of physical activity in preterm infants, but ours suggests that it can have positive effects even in adulthood.”
— Dr. Thuy Mai Luu
How your support impacts generations
Another favourable aspect of this discovery that is tied to your generosity through the HAPI project is the light it sheds on the musculature and cardiovascular capacity of people born preterm, a subject that has yet to be studied in depth.
“Up until now, research has focused on how prematurity affects the brain, lungs, and heart. This study opens up a whole new field of research.”
Learning more about the health of adults born preterm is beneficial for multiple generations. For adults, it means closer monitoring to protect against newly identified risks (such as diabetes or hypertension), while for children and unborn babies, it leads to the development of interventions to prevent these risks and improve patients’ quality of life.
HAPI: A far-reaching project born from your generosity
These new insights into cardiovascular health add to 14 years of research on the fate of preterm babies as part of the Health of Adult Preterms Investigation (HAPI). Co-directed by Drs. Luu and Nuyt, this ambitious and innovative project was launched in 2011 thanks to the combined forces of research and philanthropy.
It all started with the anonymous $100,000 donation that made it possible to get a pilot version of the HAPI project off the ground. This remarkable gift had a monumental leverage effect, generating $3 million in research funds over a 10-year period.
“We are looking at a first generation of young adults who were born before 28 weeks of pregnancy. These babies didn’t use to survive, but more and more of them now make it to adulthood. That said, preterm birth can still have consequences. The question we asked ourselves was, how can we help individuals born preterm optimize their health at every stage of their lives?”
Year after year, specialists in pulmonology, cardiology, hematology, gastroenterology, and endocrinology have joined HAPI to study the impact of prematurity from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Your support has allowed us to not only gain a better understanding of kidney health in preterm babies, but also provide scholarships to bright young minds in medicine and science. This vital financial aid will enable the next generation of researchers and physicians to work toward further improving the quality of life of babies who were born too early.
The power of growing beyond
Now an international authority in prematurity research, the HAPI project continues to transform lives—not just here in Quebec, but around the world. Its success stems from the generosity of people like you, who continue to grow beyond for even the tiniest newborns.
“Nothing that HAPI has achieved would be possible without our donors. Thank you!”
— Dr. Thuy Mai Luu
