Motor development of premature infants born below 2.500g in the first year of life: interference with child growth

Abstract

Objective: To verify if there is an association between motor development and child growth in children born prematurely below 2.500 g in the first year of life.

Material and Methods: Descriptive and observational research, associative character and cross-sectional design, with 85 premature, aged up to 12 months and birth weight below 2,500g. Information on the child’s biological and environmental characteristics was removed from the medical record. For motor development, the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) was used and to assess growth, the information was placed in reference charts of the World Health Organization. In the data analysis, Pearson’s Correlation test and test Pearson’s Chi-Square test were used (p <0.05).

Results: The weight (p = 0.001) and BMI (p <0.0001) demonstrated a moderate and signifi cant correlation with the percentile of babies’ motor performance. Furthermore, the associations of growth indicators with categories of motor performance were also significant, in weight (p=0.01) and BMI (p=0.04). Height demonstrated a correlation low, but significant (0.05) with the categorization of motor performance.

Conclusion: There is a relationship between child growth and motor development in premature children. It was demonstrated that the anthropometric indicators of weight and BMI had important interactions with the motor development of children.