Advancing Probiotic Intervention Studies in Preterm Infants / Reply

Abstract

Hartel and colleagues appreciate the letter by Guo and Wang reflecting the findings of their recent Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus Probioticsand Gut Dysbiosis in Preterm Infants (PRIMAL) Randomized Clinical Trial. The single-country focus of the PRIMAL approach to study the effect of multistrain probiotics on the prevalence of drug-resistant organisms and microbiome patterns limits the universality of findings. However, it should be emphasized that our study population is representative for Germany and characterized by diversity in ethnical background, culture, dietary habits, and lifestyle of families.