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Infants who have suffered neonatal sepsis face an increased risk of mortality and severe complications such as brain damage and, or, neurodevelopmental delay.

ABBREVIATIONS MNDMinor neurological dysfunction MABC-2 Movement Assessment Battery for Children -2nd edition AIM To elucidate the relation between motor impairment and other developmental deficits in very preterm-born children without disabling cerebral palsy and term-born comparison children at 5 years of (corrected) age.METHOD In a prospective cohort study, 165 children (81 very preterm-born and 84 term-born)were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children -2nd edition, Touwen's neurological examination, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, processing speed and visuomotor coordination tasks of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.RESULTS Motor impairment (≤15th centile) occurred in 32% of the very preterm-born children compared with 11% of their term-born peers (p=0.001). Of the very preterm-born children with motor impairment, 58% had complex minor neurological dysfunctions, 54% had low IQ, 69% had slow processing speed, 58% had visuomotor coordination problems, and 27%, 50%, and 46% had conduct, emotional, and hyperactivity problems respectively. Neurological outcome (odds ratio [OR]=41.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 7.5-232.5) and Full-scale IQ (OR=7.3, 95% CI 1.9-27.3) were significantly and independently associated with motor impairment. Processing speed (OR=4.6, 95% CI 1.8-11.6) and attention (OR=3.2, 95% CI 1.3-7.9) were additional variables associated with impaired manual dexterity. These four developmental deficits mediated the relation between preterm birth and motor impairment.INTERPRETATION Complex minor neurological dysfunctions, low IQ, slow processing speed, and hyperactivity/inattention should be taken into account when very preterm-born children are referred for motor impairment.

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.