Neurocognitive outcomes in moderately preterm born adolescents

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatrics

Background:

• Children born preterm face risks for lasting neurocognitive impairments.
• Neurocognitive outcomes for moderately to late preterm (MLP) born children are less understood, particularly in adolescence.
• This study investigates neurocognitive functioning in MLP adolescents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare intelligence, executive functioning, and attentional functioning in moderately to late preterm (MLP) adolescents with early preterm (EP) and full-term (FT) adolescents.
• To identify specific neurocognitive domains affected by preterm birth at adolescent age.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Longitudinal Preterm Outcome Project (LOLLIPOP) cohort.
• Assessed 294 adolescents (81 EP, 130 MLP, 83 FT) aged 14-16 years.
• Employed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition-Dutch Version (WISC-III-NL), Test of Everyday Attention for Children, and Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children.

Main Results:

• MLP adolescents scored lower than FT peers on WISC-III-NL Similarities and Symbol Search subtasks.
• EP adolescents performed significantly lower than FT peers on most neuropsychological tests, except Vocabulary.
• MLP adolescents' performance generally fell between FT and EP groups across most assessments.

Conclusions:

• Neurocognitive outcomes for MLP adolescents typically lie between EP and FT groups.
• MLP adolescents often exhibit low-average to average performance, with moderate neurodevelopmental issues.
• These findings underscore the need for clinical attention to potential neurodevelopmental problems in MLP adolescents.