Cognitive development in low risk preterm infants at 3-4 years of life
Open Access
- 7 June 2005
- journal article
- research article
- Published by BMJ in Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal & Neonatal
- Vol. 90 (6), F474-F479
- https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.070284
Abstract
Background: Major neurological handicaps and neuropsychological disturbances are more common in ex-preterm children than their counterparts born at term. Objective: To establish in a prospective study whether a characteristic neuropsychological profile exists in ex-preterm children who do not exhibit neurodevelopmental deficits on routine clinical examination. Methods: Thirty intellectually normal children born preterm (30–34 weeks gestation) without major neurological disabilities and a control group of term children matched for age, sex, and parental educational and occupational status were assessed at 3–4 years of age to obtain a complete neuropsychological profile. Intellectual ability, language comprehension and expression, perceptual and visual motor function, working memory, and attention and behavioural problems were investigated. Results: Even in the absence of major neurological signs, children born preterm achieved lower mean scores than controls on the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale (110.8 v 121, pv 42.7, pv 47.4, p = 0.049), memory for location test (8.4 v 9.5, p = 0.007), sustained attention test (41.6 v 51.5, p = 0.009), and the picture vocabulary test (33.3 v 44.7, p = 0.021). Conclusions: Neuropsychological abnormalities can be detected early in childhood in apparently normal ex-preterm children and are consistent with a growing body of evidence that prematurity may be associated with long term neuropsychological morbidity in childhood and adolescence.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spatial Working Memory Deficits in Children at Ages 3-4 Who Were Low Birth Weight, Preterm Infants.Neuropsychology, 2004
- Cortical anomalies associated with visuospatial processing deficitsAnnals of Neurology, 2003
- Change in Cognitive Function Over Time in Very Low-Birth-Weight InfantsJAMA, 2003
- Cognitive and neuropsychological outcomes: More than IQ scoresMental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 2002
- Psychological Findings in Preterm Children Related to Neurologic Status and Magnetic Resonance ImagingPediatrics, 1998
- PATTERNS OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION IN A LOW‐BIRTHWEIGHT POPULATI0NDevelopmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1993
- A COMPARISON OF NEUROBEHAVIORAL PERFORMANCE OF HEALTHY TERM AND LOW‐RISK PRETERM INFANTS AT TERMDevelopmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1992
- Risk factors for major neurodevelopmental impairments and need for special education resources in extremely premature infantsThe Journal of Pediatrics, 1991
- Neurodevelopmental, health, and growth status at age 6 years of children with birth weights less than 1001 gramsThe Journal of Pediatrics, 1991
- LANGUAGE AND NEURODEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOME OF LOW-BIRTHWEIGHT INFANTS AT THREE YEARSDevelopmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1989