Impaired motor performance and movement quality in very-low-birthweight children at 6 years of age

• Published in: Developmental medicine and child neurology Vol. 48; no. 9; pp. 718 - 722
• Main Authors: Schmidhauser, Janet, Caflisch, Jon, Rousson, Valentin, Bucher, Hans U, Largo, Remo H, Latal, Beatrice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.09.2006; Mac Keith Press
• Subjects: Child; Child Development - physiology; Developmental Delays; Developmental Disabilities - etiology; Developmental Disabilities - physiopathology; Disability Evaluation; Female; Gestational Age; Grade 1; Grade 2; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight - growth & development; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight - physiology; Male; Motor Skills - physiology; Movement - physiology; Original Articles; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; Statistics, Nonparametric; Task Performance and Analysis
• ISSN: 0012-1622; 1469-8749
• DOI: 10.1017/S001216220600154X

Motor performance and movement quality were quantitatively examined (Zurich Neuromotor Assessment: timed motor performances and associated movements) in 87 prospectively enrolled very-low-birthweight (VLBW; <1250g) children (38 males, 49 females; mean birthweight 1016.2g [SD 141.5]:, range 720–1240g; mean gestational age 28.7wks [SD 2], range 25.7–33.4wks) at 6 years of age. All motor tasks were below the reference population: pure motor (median z-score) –0.46; adaptive fine motor (pegboard) –0.99; adaptive gross motor –0.88; static balance –0.48; and associated movements –1.90. All tasks correlated with the degree of neurological abnormalities (p[les ]0.004). VLBW children with no neurological abnormality also performed below the 10th centile and associated movements occurred more frequently than in the reference population (odds ratio 18, 95% confidence interval 6.7–47.9). Severity of periventricular leukomalacia and intraventricular haemorrhage assessed by ultrasound was associated with adaptive fine and gross motor tasks. We conclude that speed of motor performance and movement quality in particular were substantially impaired in VLBW children and are related to the degree of neurological abnormalities and neonatal cerebral injury.