Twins are considered to be at an
increased risk for perinatal mortality and morbidities, but it is
unclear whether preterm twins are at an increased risk for poor
developmental outcomes when compared to preterm singletons. Our aim was
to compare the neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm twins vs singletons
at 5 years of age.

Very low birth weight and
very low gestational age infants (twins n = 66, singletons n = 157) were
recruited as a part of the PIPARI project in the Turku University
Hospital, covering a regional population. Cognitive development,
neuropsychological performance, and neurodevelopmental impairments
(including cerebral palsy, hearing deficit, visual impairment, and
intellectual disability) were evaluated at 5 years of age.

Twins
and singletons had otherwise similar perinatal background factors,
except for the higher proportion of preterm rupture of membranes in
singletons. Twins had cognitive and neuropsychological outcomes that
were otherwise comparable with singletons, but they had a slightly lower
verbal intelligence quotient (estimate -5.81, 95% CI -11.14 to -0.48,
p = 0.03). Being a twin was not a risk for neurodevelopmental
impairments.

Our study shows that, contrary
to a common hypothesis, the overall neurodevelopment of very preterm
twins does not significantly differ from that of preterm singletons.