Effect of Delayed Cord Clamping of Term Babies on Neurodevelopment at 12 Months: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Delayed cord clamping (DCC) is associated with an improved iron status at 8 months, a reduction of anemia at 12 months, and an improved development at 4 years. Assessment of the development after DCC has not been performed earlier in a setting with a high prevalence of iron deficiency.

Objective: The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of DCC compared to early cord clamping (ECC) on the development evaluated with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) at 12 months of age.

Method: We conducted a randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of DCC (≥180 s) versus ECC (≤60 s) in 540 full-term deliveries. Twelve months after delivery, the parents reported their infant's development by ASQ. Infants having a score < 1 standard deviation (SD) under the mean score were considered "at risk" of affected neurodevelopment.

Results: At 12 months of age, 332 (61.5%) infants were assessed. Fewer children in the DCC group were "at risk" of having affected neurodevelopment measured by the ASQ total score, 21 (7.8%) versus 49 (18.1%) in the ECC group. The relative risk was 0.43 (0.26-0.71). Infants in the DCC group had higher mean total scores (SD), 290.4 (10.4) versus 287.2 (10.1), p = 0.01. Significantly fewer infants in the delayed group were "at risk" and had higher scores in the domains "communication", "gross motor", and "personal-social".

Conclusions: DCC after 3 min was associated with an improvement of the overall neurodevelopment assessed at 12 months of age as compared to infants in the group with cord clamping within 1 min.

Keywords: Ages and Stages Questionnaire; Delayed umbilical cord clamping; Improved neurodevelopment.