Cognition, mental health and quality of life amongst siblings of preterm born children: A systematic review.

AIM: Globally, 1 in 10 babies are born preterm. Families with preterm born infants may suffer strains related to the presence of a preterm child. To date, most evidence focuses on the outcome of children born preterm and of their parents. Our objective was to investigate the evidence on the impact of having a preterm born sibling on cognitive function, mental health and quality of life of term-born siblings and critically appraise the evidence.

METHODS: We searched five electronic databases, Google Scholar and reference lists. Two reviewers independently conducted screening, data extraction and critical appraisal.

RESULTS: We retrieved 9121 articles. After duplicates, titles, abstract and full text review, seven studies met the inclusion criteria. One study reported higher anxiety and depression scores on index cases in the term born comparison group, compared to the index cases in the preterm born sibling group. Another study reported more feelings of reduced parental attention, and more interpersonal problems in the preterm born sibling group, than the comparison group.

CONCLUSIONS: Although two studies reported a difference in outcomes between index cases in preterm born sibling groups and comparison groups, the scarce evidence did not allow us to delineate an effect or lack of it.