Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS)
Exploring long-term neurodevelopmental and health outcomes in very preterm babies and their families
Our Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS) group aims to improve the long-term quality of life for children born preterm.
We conduct some of the world’s largest longitudinal observational and neuroimaging cohort studies with preterm children, which enables us to better understand the factors contributing to developmental problems observed in a high proportion of these children.
Our research focus
Based on information from our observational cohort studies, the team develops early intervention programs that aim to prevent or minimise developmental problems in preterm children.
We aim to understand the processes that cause brain injury and the factors that disrupt normal brain development in preterm children.
Our resesarchers also aim to:
- determine how early brain injury impacts subsequent brain development in preterm children
- identify brain abnormalities and environmental factors associated with developmental problems in preterm children
- develop and trial interventions to improve the outcome for preterm children.
Our research team
VIBeS is a large multi-disciplinary group with experts in the fields of:
- neonatology and general paediatrics
- neuroscience
- neuropsychology
- clinical and developmental psychology
- physiotherapy
- nursing
- occupational therapy, and speech pathology
The group comprises five specialist teams including neuroimaging, motor development, neurology, neuropsychology, and mental health and parenting.
More information
Group Leaders
Team Leaders
Group Members
Our projects
AQUA Study Stage 1: Pregnancy to 24 months
Almost 1,600 Victorian women took part in AQUA from early in their pregnancy, many of whom drank varying levels of alcohol before they realised they were pregnant.
Participants provided detailed information at three stages of pregnancy on demographics, obstetric history and pregnancy complication, diet, use of folate, health and lifestyle, and family/personal drinking history.
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AQUA Study Stage 2: Early School Years (AQUA at 6)
The purpose of AQUA at 6 was to gather detailed information on 6 to 8 yearold children about how they were coping with these new demands on their development. We again looked at whether occasional, low or moderate alcohol consumption in pregnancy is associated with any problems in the health and development of young children.
The children in the AQUA study turned six during 2018 and 2019, and we followed their development as they began their journey through school.
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Asking Questions About Alcohol in Pregnancy (AQUA) Study
AQUA is one of the world’s largest long-term studies looking at the effects on child development of drinking low or moderate levels of alcohol in pregnancy.
Women are told not to drink during pregnancy to protect their babies. But can the occasional glass of wine hurt? And what if a woman has already had a drink before knowing she is pregnant?
MCRI is seeking to answer these questions through the AQUA study.
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VIBeS 20-year follow-up
This phase of the VIBeS study is complete.
This 20-year follow-up, which aimed to understand how early brain development affected cognitive, physical, and mental health in adulthood. Researchers also explored how genetics, early health, and social factors shaped brain and cognitive development, and how brain structure related to function at age 20.
The VIBeS cohort is the world’s largest long-term study that used brain imaging and developmental assessments to track children born very preterm and at term.
Read more...Victorian Infant Collaborative Study (VICS)
VICS is Victoria’s longest-running study on outcomes following extremely preterm birth. For over four decades, VICS has been working towards improving the lives of the most premature (born before 28 weeks gestation) and tiniest babies (those with a birth weight less than 1000g) by better understanding the extent of long-term health and developmental problems that these infants may face.
To date, there have been six VICS cohorts dating back to the late 1970s, that have been followed from birth, throughout their childhood and some into adulthood to determine how extreme prematurity/extremely low birth weight and the intensive care they receive as an infant affects them long-term. The VICS team includes paediatricians, psychologists, nurses and research staff and is a collaboration between the Royal Women’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital for Women, Monash Medical Centre, the Royal Children’s Hospital, and Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
In July 2022, recruitment for the new VICS cohort began. All babies born extremely preterm (before 28 weeks gestation) or extremely low birth weight (less than 1000g) in Victoria between the 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 will be invited to take part. We will also be recruiting normal birth weight, and term-born infants as a comparison group.
This study will look at long-term outcomes for the child (cognition, behaviour and physical development) and parents including mental health and quality of life. This study will also provide important information on how recent changes in care (recommending active neonatal care for infants born as early as 22 weeks gestation) and the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced outcomes for premature babies and their parents.
This information will help the children and their parents, by directing resources for parents who may need additional emotional support following the birth of a premature infant in the future.
VIBeS Plus Trial - Long-term outcomes of a preventive care intervention for preterm infants and their families
The VIBeS Plus intervention was a preventative care program for very preterm infants and their families. The program involved home visits over the first year of life by a team of psychologists and physiotherapists. The team provided education about infant development, supported the parent-infant relationship and parents’ mental health, and assisted families with issues such as settling and adjustment issues. The VIBeS Plus study conducted follow-up assessments at two, four, seven to eight, and most recently 13 years of age, to assess the long-term effects of this preventative care program.
The study found that children born very preterm who received the preventative care program had fewer behavioural difficulties than those who did not at two, four, and 13 years. Parents who participated in the program also reported slightly fewer depressive symptoms than parents who did not up to seven to eight years after the intervention. Overall, these results suggest that the positive effects from such early preventative programs may last into early adolescence for children born very preterm and their families.
LaPrem cohort - Brain development and short-term outcomes of children born late preterm
The LaPrem study is an observational cohort study focusing on brain development and developmental outcomes of children born between 32 and 36 completed weeks of pregnancy (known as moderate and late preterm). Moderate and late preterm births form more than 80 per cent of all preterm births, and yet little is known about how being born during this gestation affects brain development.
LaPrem has recruited 200 children born moderate or late preterm and 200 term-born controls. This group of children had brain MRI at term equivalent age and underwent developmental assessment in the newborn period and at 2 years. The LaPrem cohort is now coming back for a comprehensive assessment of health, cognitive, and brain development at 9 years.
VIBeS 2 cohort - Neurobehavioural development in very preterm infants and psychological distress in their parents
The VIBeS 2 study is continuing from the original VIBeS cohort by investigating early neurodevelopment in the neonatal intensive care and special care units of infants born earlier than 30 weeks’ gestational age and their parent’s psychological wellbeing between birth and 5 years of age. VIBeS 2 is a unique study because we also assessed parental mental health (both mother and father) throughout the first 2 years of the child’s life to better understand how parenting experiences differ when a child is born early compared to term and if this has an effect on later development of the child.
We recruited 150 preterm infants and 150 term-born controls and their parents, measured brain growth and injury in the newborn period, as well as assessed parent mental health and child developmental outcomes at term, one, two, and five years of age.
e-prem Trial- Improving child and parent outcomes after preterm birth using clinician-assisted web-based early intervention
e-prem is a clinician-assisted web-based intervention that provides information and strategies for parents to promote their child’s development and support parental mental health. The intervention is delivered over the first year of life and is based on our successful home-visiting early intervention program (VIBeS Plus). For this study, we conducted a randomised control trial to know if the intervention improved child development (in areas including thinking and talking), parent mental health, and the way parents and their children interacted with one another (their relationship) compared with standard care. Results are currently being analysed and a summary will be available soon.
TEDI-Prem: Telehealth for Early Developmental Intervention in babies born very preterm
In a multi-centre randomised controlled trial of 466 very preterm (VPT) infants, the TEDI-Prem trial compares an early intervention program delivered face-to-face in the neonatal unit and via telehealth across the child’s first 12 months of life with the usual care VPT infants receive and its effects on child neurodevelopment and parent wellbeing. The intervention focuses on early motor, cognitive, and language development, environmental enrichment, and supporting parent-infant interaction and integrates the psychosocial education components of ‘e-prem’ with the principles of ‘SPEEDI - supporting play exploration and early development intervention’.
Funding
Thank you to our supporters:
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Collaborations
We partner with leading researchers and institutions worldwide, including:
- Professors Maria Makrides and Robert Gibson, The University of Adelaide
- Professors Terrie Inder, Jeffrey Neil, and Simon Warfield, Harvard University
Featured publications
Anderson PJ, de Miranda DM, Albuquerque MR, Indredavik MS, Evensen KAI, Van Lieshout R, Saigal S, Taylor HG, Raikkonen K, Kajantie E, Marlow N, Johnson S, Woodward LJ, Austin N, Nosarti C, Jaekel J, Wolke D, Cheong JL, Burnett A, Treyvaud K, Lee KJ, Doyle LW. Psychiatric disorders in individuals born very preterm / very low-birth weight: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2021 Nov 27;42:101216. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101216. PMID: 34901794; PMCID: PMC8639417.
Thompson DK, Matthews LG, Alexander B, Lee KJ, Kelly CE, Adamson CL, Hunt RW, Cheong JLY, Spencer-Smith M, Neil JJ, Seal ML, Inder TE, Doyle LW, Anderson PJ. (2020). Determinants and outcomes for regional brain growth over the first 13 years of life in term and very preterm born children. Nature Communications, 11, 696.
Cheong JLY, Lee KJ, Boland RA, Spittle AJ, Opie GF, Burnett AC, Hickey LM, Roberts G, Anderson PJ, Doyle LW; Victorian Infant Collaborative Study Group. Changes in long-term prognosis with increasing postnatal survival and the occurrence of postnatal morbidities in extremely preterm infants offered intensive care: a prospective observational study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2018 Dec;2(12):872-879. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(18)30287-6. Epub 2018 Oct 22. Erratum in: Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2019 Jan;3(1):e1. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(18)30381-X. PMID: 30361130.
Cheong JLY, Anderson PJ, Burnett AC, Roberts G, Davis N, Hickey L, Carse E, Doyle LW; Victorian Infant Collaborative Study Group. Changing Neurodevelopment at 8 Years in Children Born Extremely Preterm Since the 1990s. Pediatrics. 2017 Jun;139(6):e20164086. doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-4086. PMID: 28814550.
Pace CC, Spittle AJ, Molesworth CM, Lee KJ, Northam EA, Cheong JL, Davis PG, Doyle LW, Treyvaud K, Anderson PJ. Evolution of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Parents of Very Preterm Infants During the Newborn Period. JAMA Pediatr. 2016 Sep 1;170(9):863-70. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.0810. PMID: 27428766.