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Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
19:15

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale

Published on: August 25, 2014

Extreme prematurity and neuropsychological outcome in the preschool years

Sarah Raz1, Angela K Debastos, Julie Bapp Newman

  • 1Developmental Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology and the Merrill-Palmer Institute, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. sarahraz@wayne.edu

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS
|November 11, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Extremely preterm infants born at 25-26 weeks

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Pediatric Neuropsychology

Background:

  • Increasing survival rates of extremely preterm (EP) infants necessitate understanding their long-term outcomes.
  • The "surfactant era" has improved survival for infants born at the threshold of viability.
  • Longer-term neurodevelopmental outcomes for EP infants remain a critical area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare neuropsychological outcomes between EP preschoolers born at 23-24 weeks and 25-26 weeks gestation.
  • To determine if gestational maturity uniquely predicts neuropsychological outcomes in EP preschoolers.
  • To account for sociodemographic, ante-, peri-, and neonatal factors in the analysis.

Main Methods:

  • Neuropsychological assessments were conducted on two groups of EP preschoolers (23-24 weeks vs. 25-26 weeks gestation).
  • Statistical analyses controlled for sociodemographic confounders.
  • Regression analyses explored the unique contribution of gestational maturity to outcome variance.

Main Results:

  • Infants born at 25-26 weeks gestation demonstrated significantly better general intellectual abilities, nonverbal intelligence, and global motor performance compared to those born at 23-24 weeks.
  • Gestational age explained a unique portion of the variance in intellectual and motor outcomes.
  • Group differences ranged from 0.70 to 0.80 standard deviations.

Conclusions:

  • Gestational maturity is a significant predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes in extremely preterm infants.
  • Gestational age serves as an indicator of central nervous system vulnerability to developmental disruptions.
  • Early-term infants born at 25-26 weeks gestation have better neuropsychological outcomes than those born at 23-24 weeks.

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