Original articleEarly gross motor development of preterm infants according to the Alberta Infant Motor Scale
Section snippets
Patients
During a 12-year period (December 1993 to November 2005), 2228 preterm infants with a gestational age (GA) of ≤32 weeks who were nursed in one NICU of a regional tertiary level perinatal center survived the NICU period. Of these, 800 infants (35.9%) fulfilled our inclusion criteria. They were of a slightly shorter GA (mean = 29.4; SD = 1.7) compared with the nonincluded infants (mean = 29.7; SD = 1.9) (t = 3.75, df = 2226, P < .0001) and had lower birth weight (BW) (mean = 1194; SD = 292)
Association Between Selected Variables and AIMS Scores
A significant association was found between GA and AIMS total score only at 5 to 6 months (F[2,62] = 6,20, P = .004). Post hoc analyses, however, revealed no significant differences between the groups (GA, 24 5/7 to 28 weeks: n = 17, mean = 15.18, SD = 3.07; GA, 28 1/7 to 30 weeks: n = 21, mean = 14.95, SD = 2.46; GA, 30 1/7 to 32 weeks: n = 24, mean = 16.83, SD = 5.10; P = .082). There was a significant association between BW (subdivided into infants <1250 g and ≥1250 g) and AIMS total score
Discussion
This study identified significant differences in early gross motor development of preterm infants compared with term infants, even after full correction for prematurity. These results were not systematically influenced by any of the variables measured in this study. Three other studies have reported similar findings at selected age levels.2, 6, 22 This study presents comprehensive analyses on the differences between preterm and term infants’gross motor development on the full age range from 1
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