Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2019 Feb;39(2):237-247.
doi: 10.1038/s41372-018-0273-x. Epub 2018 Nov 21.

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

J Wells Logan  1 , Elizabeth N Allred  2   3 , Michael E Msall  4 , Robert M Joseph  5 , T T Michael O'Shea  6 , Timothy Heeren  7 , Alan Leviton  2   3 , Karl C K Kuban  8 ; ELGAN Study Investigators
Collaborators, Affiliations
Observational Study

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

J Wells Logan et al. J Perinatol. 2019 Feb.

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: In total, 874 children were evaluated at the age of 10 years. After adjusting for confounders, children of multifetal pregnancies performed significantly better on one of six 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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest Statement:

None of the authors have any proprietary or conflicts of interest related to this submission. This submission has not been published anywhere previously and it is not simultaneously being considered for any other publication.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Sample description. Children from multifetal and singleton pregnancies.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Box-and-whisker plots of each neurocognitive subtest by whether the pregnancy was multifetal or singleton.1 All neurocognitive Z-scores are adjusted to population norms.*
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Deary IJ, Pattie A, Wilson V, Whalley LJ. The cognitive cost of being a twin: two whole-population surveys. Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies 2005;8(4):376–83. - PubMed
    1. Ronalds GA, De Stavola BL, Leon DA. The cognitive cost of being a twin: evidence from comparisons within families in the Aberdeen children of the 1950s cohort study. BMJ 2005;331(7528):1306. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Silventoinen K, Myrskyla M, Tynelius P, Yokoyama Y, Rasmussen F. Social Modifications of the Multiple Birth Effect on IQ and Body Size: a Population-Based Study of Young Adult Males. Paediatr Perinat Ep 2013;27(4):380–7. - PubMed
    1. Voracek M, Haubner T. Twin-singleton differences in intelligence: a meta-analysis. Psychological reports 2008;102(3):951–62. - PubMed
    1. Calvin C, Fernandes C, Smith P, Visscher PM, Deary IJ. Is there still a cognitive cost of being a twin in the UK? Intelligence 2009;37(3):243–8.

Publication types