Very preterm birth is associated with disabilities in multiple developmental domains

Abstract

Objective: Follow-up studies in very preterm children usually present outcome for separate developmental domains. Presence of disabilities in more than one developmental domain will show a more serious outcome picture for extreme preterm infants and may be related to a different degree of perinatal problems.

Methods: At 5.5 years corrected age, outcome in the neurological, motor, cognitive, and behavioral domain was studied in 157 children born < 30 weeks gestation. The children were divided into a normal, a single, or a multiple disability group. Group differences in background, clinical characteristics, and neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years were evaluated.

Results: Thirty-nine percent had a normal developmental outcome, 17% had a single disability, and 44% had multiple disabilities. Multiple disabilities were associated with lower birth weight, BPD, and difficulties according to neurodevelopmental assessments at 2 years.

Conclusion: Assessments of different developmental domains show that most very preterm children had multiple disabilities.