Effect of early comprehensive interventions on physical growth and nervedevelopment among premature infants / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To examine the effect of early comprehensive interventions on the physical growth and nerve development among premature infants, so as to provide insights into the follow-up management of premature infants after discharge from hospital.@*Methods@#A total of 130 premature infants delivered in Shaoxing Municipal Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital from 2019 to 2021 were selected and divided into high- and low-risk groups according to gestational age and birth weight, while 306 full-term normal infants in the same hospital during the study period served as controls. All premature infants were given early comprehensive interventions until age of 12 months, including nutritional support and parental guidance of children's feeding and development, and all normal infants received periodical health checkup according to the basic public health service program. All infants received periodical measurements of height, weight and head circumference, and the 12-month intellectual and motor development ability was measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development revised in Chinese cities was used to assess. Infants' physical growth, mental development index (MDI) and motor development index (PDI) were compared among groups.@*Results@#There were 130 premature infants with gestational ages of 28 to 36 weeks and birth weight of 1 200 to 3 440 g, including 79 male infants, and there were 80 infants in the low-risk group and 50 infants in the high-risk group. The full-term infants had a gestational age of 37 to 42 weeks, and birth weights of 2 500 to 4 000 g, including 162 male infants. There were significant differences in height (Wald χ2=28.664, P<0.001) and head circumference growth (Wald χ2=19.312, P=0.013) among the three groups as revealed by the generalized estimating equation; however, no significant differences were seen in the 12-month weight (F=0.639, P=0.528), height (F=1.051, P=0.350) or head circumference (F=0.318, P=0.728) among the three groups. The percentages of abnormal MDI were 2.00%, 0 and 1.31% among the high-risk premature infants, low-risk premature infants and full-term infants at ages of 12 months (χ2=1.319, P=0.517), while the percentages of abnormal PDI were 20.00%, 7.50% and 5.56% among the three groups at ages of 12 months (χ2=12.818, P=0.002).@*Conclusions@#Following implementation of early comprehensive interventions, the premature infants have favorable physical growth and comparable MDI with full-term infants; however, a high percentage of abnormal PDI is seen in high-risk premature infants. An improvement in the motor development among high-risk premature infants is recommended to be emphasized during the management of premature infants.