Neurocognitive function of 10-year-old multiples born less than 28 weeks of gestational age

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined the relationship between birth plurality and neurocognitive function among children born extremely preterm. STUDY DESIGN: We compared rates of Z-scores ≤ −2 on 18 tests of neurocognitive function and academic achievement at age 10 years in 245 children arising from twin pregnancies, 55 from triplet pregnancies, and 6 from a septuplet pregnancy to that of 568 singletons, all of whom were born before the 28th week of gestation. RESULTS: 874 children were evaluated at age 10-years. After adjusting for confounders, children of multifetal pregnancies performed significantly better on one of 6 subtests of executive function than their singleton peers. Performance was similar on all other assessments of intelligence, language, academic achievement, processing speed, visual perception, and fine motor skills. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence that children born of multifetal pregnancies had worse scores than their singleton peers on assessments of neurocognitive and academic function.

Type of Delivery, Neuropsychological Development and Intelligence in Twin Births

“…The long-term effect of extreme prematurity is well documented (Wood et al, 2000). There is increased risk of cerebral palsy as well as problems in the development of basic or cognitive executive functions, conditioning low academic performance (Marlow et al, 2005, 2007; Wolke et al, 2008). The long-term effects of moderate (32–34 weeks) or late prematurity (34–37 weeks) are less obvious and, although there are some studies that reveal the existence of certain difficulties at school and in the cognitive development of infants born between 34 and 37 weeks (Lindstrom et al, 2007; Morse et al, 2009; Chyi et al, 2010), they have received less attention and there is less evidence of this (Odd et al, 2012).…”