Association of Preterm Birth and Socioeconomic Status With Neonatal Brain Structure.

Importance: Preterm birth and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with brain structure in childhood, but the relative contributions of each during the neonatal period are unknown.

Objective: To investigate associations of birth gestational age (GA) and SES with neonatal brain morphology by testing 3 hypotheses: GA and SES are associated with brain morphology; associations between SES and brain morphology vary with GA; and associations between SES and brain structure and morphology depend on how SES is operationalized.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study recruited participants from November 2016 to September 2021 at a single center in the United Kingdom.

Language function following preterm birth: prediction using machine learning.

Background: Preterm birth can lead to impaired language development. This study aimed to predict language outcomes at 2 years corrected gestational age (CGA) for children born preterm.

Methods: We analysed data from 89 preterm neonates (median GA 29 weeks) who underwent diffusion MRI (dMRI) at term-equivalent age and language assessment at 2 years CGA using the Bayley-III.