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. 2022 Dec 5:10:1004785.
doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.1004785. eCollection 2022.

Neurodevelopment at seven years and parents' feelings of prematurely born children

Clémentine Mercier  1 , Hélène Deforge  1   2 , Jean-Michel Hascoët  1   2
Affiliations

Neurodevelopment at seven years and parents' feelings of prematurely born children

Clémentine Mercier et al. Front Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: The evolution of knowledge and technical advances in neonatal resuscitation have improved the survival of very premature babies. However, the long-term neurodevelopmental prognosis and cognitive and learning abilities are still uncertain.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the neurodevelopment and learning abilities of 7-year-old children born prematurely, and their parents' feelings at 8 years of age.

Patients and methods: Data from children born before 33 weeks gestation in a level III maternity hospital and involved in a regional follow-up network were analyzed at 7 years of age. Neurodevelopmental abnormalities were defined as cerebral palsy, hearing or visual impairment, and/or behavioral abnormalities. School performance was evaluated by the EDA test. A parents' questionnaire assessed their feelings about the child's and family's quality of life at 8 years of age.

Results: At 7 years of age, 51% of the 238 children presented neurodevelopmental abnormalities: 3.3% with cerebral palsy, 6.2% with hearing impairments, 50.7% with visual impairments, and 11.3% with behavioral disorders. The children with neurodevelopmental abnormalities had lower gestational age (29.0 ± 2.0 vs. 30.0 ± 2.1 weeks, p = 0.003) and more EEG abnormalities during the neonatal period (31.1% vs. 19.8%, p = 0.048) than the children without abnormalities. Ninety-four percent of the children with abnormalities were enrolled in normal schools, 33% with special support. In the overall cohort, 31% of the children had all academic performance scores in the normal range of the reference population. At 8 years old, 39% of the parents of children with neurodevelopmental abnormalities felt that their child's situation significantly impacted their quality of life compared to 14% of parents of children without neurodevelopmental abnormality (p = 0.022).

Conclusion: Half of children born very prematurely present with long-term neurodevelopmental abnormalities, which their parents feel significantly impacts their quality of life.

Keywords: extreme prematurity; neurodevelopmental abnormalities; parental feelings; perinatal network; quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of children born before 33 weeks and followed up in the RAFAEL network from 2010 to 2012.
Figure 2
Figure 2
EDA Z-scores. (A) Percentage of population based on EDA Z-score. (B) Mean Z-scores for the EDA parameters of all grade levels based on neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Impact of neurodevelopment at 8 years old on the quality of life scores of the families.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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