Social determination in the health of children born preterm: a scoping review.
Mariana Fuentes Mendoza Rodrigues Soares, Amanda de Azevedo Gomes, Juliana Barony da Silva and 3 others
PMID 40667950WHAT IT FOUND
Preterm infants' development and health service use were reported to track home context: caregiver education, housing, support, breastfeeding, maternal stress, alcohol, and language.
No studies measured environment or food access.
Key findings
01Thirty-one studies were included, and no included study examined environmental factors or access to food.
02Living and working conditions were addressed in 29 studies, while behavioral and lifestyle factors were addressed in 19 studies.
03Child health outcomes were mostly developmental, with growth investigated in only four studies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review mapped evidence and gaps; it did not test whether social factors caused child outcomes. The coding variables were limited in representing social determinants of health in their entirety. It excluded children older than two years, so it says nothing about later childhood. It excluded care settings other than the home and gray literature, so important information may be missing. Included studies investigated variables in isolation from the social determinants framework, making inequities hard to analyze. No included study examined environmental factors or access to food.
Declared interests
The review was supported by Brazilian CNPq grants 18/2021 and 09/2022. The supplied text gives no competing interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that changing income, housing, caregiver stress, or language access improves preterm infant outcomes. The review mapped which factors were studied and reported associations; it did not test interventions.