SynthesisBiology of sex differences2023
Sex differences in the effects of prematurity and/or low birthweight on neurodevelopmental outcomes: systematic review and meta-analyses.
Synthesis in Biology of sex differences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Regional Brain Volume Differences Were Associated With Behavioural Outcomes in Children Born Preterm: A Systematic Review.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Pooled it
- Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Children and Adolescents Born Preterm or Low Birth Weight: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2025Pooled it
- Metabolomic alterations in cord blood improve the prediction of childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Cognition and language of 2-year-old very preterm children measured using brief validated parental report instruments: a cross-sectional study.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Subclinical but significant: A multi-informant comparative study on early socio-emotional difficulties in preterm preschoolers.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Trunk Kinematics in Writhing and Fidgety Movements: A Pilot Study on Early Postural Control in Infants Using Computer Vision.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Perinatal and Childhood Risk Factors of Adverse Early Childhood Developmental Outcomes: A Systematic Review Using a Socioecological Model.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Positive impact of sodium L-lactate supplementation on blood acid-base status in preterm newborns.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Functional connectivity of the superior temporal sulcus at term-equivalent age: effects of gestational age and sex.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Visual pathways functioning in healthy pre-term adolescents: Sex but not gestational age effect.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Roles of chromosomal and gonadal sex in the fetal and placental responses to maternal food restriction in mice.Molecular human reproduction · 2025Article
- Mortality from external causes in late adolescence and early adulthood by gestational age and sex: a population-based cohort study in four Nordic countries.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Association of birthweight and risk of incident dementia: a prospective cohort study.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Sex-based disparities in DNA methylation and gene expression in late-gestation mouse placentas.Biology of sex differences · 2024Article
- The role of gonadal hormones and sex chromosomes in sex-dependent effects of early nutrition on metabolic health.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Sex-specific associations of gestational age at birth and birth size with early life within-network brain connectivity: An exploratory study.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPremature birth and/or low birthweight have long-lasting effects on cognition. The purpose of the present systematic review is to examine whether the effects of prematurity and/or low birth weight on neurodevelopmental outcomes differ between males and females.
methodsWeb of Science, Scopus, and Ovid MEDLINE were searched for studies of humans born premature and/or of low birthweight, where neurodevelopmental phenotypes were measured at 1 year of age or older. Studies must have reported outcomes in such a way that it was possible to assess whether effects were greater in one sex than the other. Risk of bias was assessed using both the Newcastle-Ottawa scale and the National Institutes of Health Quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies.
resultsSeventy-five studies were included for descriptive synthesis, although only 24 presented data in a way that could be extracted for meta-analyses. Meta-analyses found that severe and moderate prematurity/low birthweight impaired cognitive function, and severe prematurity/low birthweight also increased internalizing problem scores. Moderate, but not severe, prematurity/low birthweight significantly increased externalizing problem scores. In no case did effects of prematurity/low birthweight differ between males and females. Heterogeneity among studies was generally high and significant, although age at assessment was not a significant moderator of effect. Descriptive synthesis did not identify an obvious excess or deficiency of male-biased or female-biased effects for any trait category. Individual study quality was generally good, and we found no evidence of publication bias.
conclusionsWe found no evidence that the sexes differ in their susceptibility to the effects of severe or moderate prematurity/low birthweight on cognitive function, internalizing traits or externalizing traits. Result heterogeneity tended to be high, but this reflects that one sex is not consistently more affected than the other. Frequently stated generalizations that one sex is more susceptible to prenatal adversity should be re-evaluated.
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.