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.

The researchers were also interested to know the predictors of these developmental outcomes. They found that children in the three subgroups with suboptimal outcome profiles were more often boys or had parents with a lower level of education or with a non-European migration background. Children who were diagnosed with prematurity-related lung disease (i.e. bronchopulmonary dysplasia) also had a higher risk for suboptimal developmental outcomes.

Authors concluded that new insights are highly needed for very preterm born children. Preterm birth rates are increasing as are survival rates, especially among the most immature infants who have the highest risk for impairments. Thus, the number of very preterm born children with impairments growing up in our societies is rising. These impairments generally persist when children get older and there is currently little evidence in support of interventions that meaningfully improve long-term outcomes. These insights may be used to tailor support programs to the specific needs of subgroups of children to improve their effectiveness.

Reference: E. Sabrina TwilhaarPhD, Véronique Pierrat, MD, PhD,Laetitia Marchand-Martin, MSc,Valérie Benhammou, PhD, Monique Kaminski, MSc, Pierre-Yves Ancel, MD, PhD, September07,2021 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.09.001