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Probiotic supplementation in very preterm babies was linked to a lower risk of both severe intestinal disease and death. This is shown by a new study from the Karolinska Institutet, published in JAMA Network Open. The findings are based on data from nearly 4,700 babies born prematurely in Sweden.

Very preterm babies are at increased risk of developing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious intestinal disease that can be life-threatening. Since 2020, the Swedish Neonatal Society has recommended that babies born between gestational weeks 28 and 31 receive daily probiotic supplements—that is, live bacteria that can influence the gut microbiota. This is in line with a European recommendation based on international research.

In the current study, the researchers analyzed data from the Swedish Neonatal care quality register on 4,695 babies born between 2017 and 2024. Of these, 1,571 received a probiotic supplement containing three selected bacterial strains, while 3,124 did not. The researchers investigated whether probiotic supplements were linked to the risk of death or developing NEC during the babies' stay in the neonatal ward.

"We found that infants who received probiotics had a significantly lower risk of both NEC and death compared with those who did not receive the supplements. At the same time, mortality was low in both groups," says Ayoub Mitha, a doctor and researcher at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, who is the study's corresponding author.

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