Stability of general cognition in children born extremely preterm as they grow older: Good or bad news?

Does the IQ of children born extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks’ gestation) catch-up to their peers as they transition into adolescence and adulthood, or does the cognitive deficit observed in early childhood persist, or even worsen? Because few quality long-term longitudinal studies exist, the answer is unclear. In the current issue of the journal, Linsell and colleagues addressed this important question using data from the EPICure study,1 which assessed cognitive functioning at 2.5, 6, 11 and 19 years of age in survivors born <26 weeks’ gestational age in the UK and the Ireland over 10 months in 1995. Their major finding was that poor cognitive function in EP survivors persists throughout childhood into late adolescence/early adulthood. They also identified several variables associated with worse cognitive performance in the preterm group, including male sex, neonatal brain injury, gestational age <25 weeks and having a mother with a lower education level.