SynthesisDevelopmental medicine and child neurology2019
Executive function deficits in children born preterm or at low birthweight: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Developmental medicine and child neurology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of size at birth on health, growth and developmental outcomes in children up to age 18: an umbrella review.Archives of disease in childhood · 2023Pooled it
- Sex differences in the effects of prematurity and/or low birthweight on neurodevelopmental outcomes: systematic review and meta-analyses.Biology of sex differences · 2023Pooled it
- Strengthening Executive Function and Self-Regulation Through Teacher-Student Interaction in Preschool and Primary School Children: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Developmental outcomes after early surgery for complex congenital heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Executive function training in very preterm children: a randomized controlled trial.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Diverging Paths: Heterogeneity in Early Childhood Executive Function Development in Chile.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Perinatal Factors and Neuroimaging Changes for Brain Maturation Among Adolescents.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Prenatal and early-life determinants of neurodevelopment: A decade of discoveries and new directions in ABCD.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Specific Early Childhood Experiences Predict Executive Function Skills During Later Childhood and Adolescence: Evidence from the ECHO Cohort.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Neuroanatomical subtypes of preterm adolescents.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Diminished Performance and Learning of a Novel Visuomotor Skill in Children Born Preterm.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- From microbes to milestones: Gut bacterial abundances and functional pathways associate with neurodevelopment following preterm birth.Gut microbiology · 2026Article
- Executive function and implications for the Preterm Behavioral Phenotype in very preterm children at age 9-10 years.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Article
- The long-term effect of very preterm birth on school readiness: exploring preschool mediating pathways.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Divergent representation and processing of task cues in sensory and prefrontal cortices of preterm-born mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Congenital anomalies identified during early childhood in NICU infants with bilateral hearing loss: a multi-centre longitudinal cohort study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Motor performance and higher associative cortical networks in adolescents with neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy treated with therapeutic hypothermia.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2026Article
- Harsh Parenting, Maternal Depression, and Executive Function in Early Childhood.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Longitudinal effects of gestational age on academic performance in children born preterm.Early human development · 2025Article
- Executive Functions and Reading Skills in Low-Risk Preterm Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo investigate the magnitude of executive function deficits and their dependency on gestational age, sex, age at assessment, and year of birth for children born preterm and/or at low birthweight.
methodPubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and ERIC were searched for studies reporting on executive functions in children born preterm/low birthweight and term controls born in 1990 and later, assessed at a mean age of 4 years or higher. Studies were included if five or more studies reported on the same executive function measures.
resultsThirty-five studies (3360 children born preterm/low birthweight, 2812 controls) were included. Children born preterm/low birthweight performed 0.5 standardized mean difference (SMD) lower on working memory and cognitive flexibility and 0.4 SMD lower on inhibition. SMDs for these executive functions did not significantly differ from each other. Meta-regression showed that heterogeneity in SMDs for working memory and inhibition could not be explained by study differences in gestational age, sex, age at assessment, or year of birth.
interpretationChildren born preterm/low birthweight since 1990 perform half a SMD below term-born peers on executive function, which does not seem to improve with more recent advances in medical care or with increasing age. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Children born preterm/low birthweight perform below term-born children on core executive functions. Lower gestational age or male sex are not risk factors for poorer executive functions. Executive function difficulties in children born preterm/low birthweight remain stable across childhood. Executive function difficulties are similar for children born recently and children born in earlier eras.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.