Development in children after being born very preterm Four likely outcomes

A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, reports that, among very preterm born children, subgroups can be distinguished with distinct outcome profiles that vary in severity, type, and combinations of deficits.

Children born very preterm, that is, after a pregnancy duration of less than 32 weeks, have a higher risk for difficulties during development than peers who are born after a normal pregnancy duration. What kind of difficulties and to what degree, however, varies strongly from child to child. Nevertheless, very preterm born children are usually considered as one group. According to new research. Their findings suggested that the population of very preterm born children could be divided into four subgroups, each with a different profile of developmental outcomes.

Almost half of the children (45%) belonged to a subgroup of children who had no difficulties and functioned at similar levels as their full-term born peers. However, 55% of the children belonged to one of three subgroups with suboptimal developmental outcomes. The first subgroup consisted of children who primarily had difficulties in motor and cognitive functioning, whereas a second group of children primarily had difficulties in behavior, emotions, and social relationships. A small subgroup of children had more severe impairments in all domains of development.