Objectives:
to assess cognitive, motor, and language development in preterm infants, and perinatal, neonatal and socioeconomic factors associated with abnormal development.
Methods:
a cross-sectional study was carried out with 104 preterm infants (gestational ages < 33 weeks) (17 - 30 months corrected ages) using the Bayley III Scale. Logistic regression analysis was performed and prevalence ratios calculated.
Results:
the average language score (81.9) was low, while cognitive (93.7) and motor (91.1) scores were within normal values. There were deficiencies in receptive but not in expressive language. Male sex (OR 2.55 CI 1.01-6.44) and neonatal pneumonia (OR 33.85 CI 3.3-337.8) were associated with abnormal language scores. No factor was associated with abnormal cognitive scores; male gender indicated an increased risk of abnormal motor scores. The lack of a father was a risk factor for impaired motor development (PR: 2.96, CI: 5.6 - 1.55). There was no statistically significant difference in the development of small and appropriate for gestational age children.
Conclusions:
the Bayley III Scale was useful for assessing language and cognition separately, discriminating between receptive and expressive language. There was a high frequency of language deficiencies, especially in receptive language. Although motor and cognitive average scores were within the normal range, there was a high frequency of children with delayed development in these areas, especially motor development.
Infant development; Intelligence tests; Infant; premature