{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T16:54:57Z","timestamp":1781196897152,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,17]],"date-time":"2023-07-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1689552000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pediatr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>To examine the effect of twin birth on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in a cohort of Italian preterm infants with very low birth weight.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Study design<\/jats:title><jats:p>We performed a retrospective cohort study on children born in a tertiary care centre. We included children born between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2013 with a gestational age (GA) of \u226432 weeks and birth weight of &amp;lt;1,500\u2005g. The infants born from twin pregnancies complicated by twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and from higher-order multiple pregnancies were excluded. The children were evaluated both at 2 years corrected age and 5 years chronological age with Griffiths mental development scales revised (GMDS-R). The linear mixed effects models were used to study the effect of being a twin vs. being a singleton on GMDS-R scores, adjusting for GA, being born small for gestational age, sex, length of NICU stay, socio-economic status, and comorbidity score (CS) calculated as the sum of the weights associated with each of the major morbidities of the infants.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>A total of 301 children were included in the study, of which 189 (62.8%) were singletons and 112 (37.2%) were twins; 23 out of 112 twins were monochorionic (MC). No statistically significant differences were observed between twins and singletons in terms of mean general quotient and subscales at both 2 and 5 years. No effect of chorionicity was found when comparing scores of MC and dichorionic twins vs. singletons; however, after adjusting for the CS, the MC twins showed lower scores in the hearing and language and performance subscales at 5 years.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Overall, in our cohort of children born very preterm, twin infants were not at higher risk of neurodevelopmental impairment compared with singletons at pre-school age.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fped.2023.1217650","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,17]],"date-time":"2023-07-17T18:24:27Z","timestamp":1689618267000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["To be born twin: effects on long-term neurodevelopment of very preterm infants\u2014a cohort 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