The use of caffeine for the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia and to shorten the duration of assisted ventilation in premature newborns effectively improves expiratory flow rates at age 11 years, according to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

“Infants born very preterm — less than 32 weeks’ gestational age — or less than 1,500 g have worse expiratory air flow in childhood and adulthood than those born at term or of normal birth weight,” Lex W. Doyle, MD, professor of neonatal pediatrics at the Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne and head of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Center of Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine, and colleagues wrote.