A study on the neurological developmental outcome and associated impact factors of late preterm infants at 1 year of age

Objective To study the neurological development of late preterm infants at 1 year old corrected age and its related factors. Methods A total of 165 late preterm infants and 102 full-term infants received assessments with "0-6-year-old children intelligence developmental scale " for neurological development at 1 year of age. The neurological development outcome were estimated with developmental quotient ( DQ) . DQ 85 was defined abnormal. Social-domestic and clinical factors related to neurological development were analyzed with Logistic regression. Results Higher abnormal rate of low DQ was found among late preterm infants than normal infants ( χ 2 = 5. 047,P 0. 05 ) . Comparing with the normal infants,late preterm infants had poor score in terms of DQ,especially in gross motor,exiguous action and language. Logistic regression showed very-low-birth-weight( OR = 2. 175 ) , hypoglycemia ( OR = 1. 924) and education level of mother ( OR = 0. 602) were related to DQ scores of late preterm infants. Conclusions The late preterm infants are much more likely to suffer neurological developmental delay. It is closely related to very-low-birth-weight,hypoglycemia and education level of Mother.