Neuromotor and sensory development in preterm infants: prospective study

AIM: To investigate the relationship between motor and sensory development in the first 4 months of life in preterm infants born at 32 gestational weeks and below. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study consisted of 56 high-risk infants with a corrected age of 1 month who were born at 32 gestational weeks and stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit for at least 15 days. Neuro Sensory Motor Developmental Assessment and Infant Sensory Profile-2 were used for evaluation. These assessments were applied to preterm infants at the 1(st) and 4(th) months. The results of assessments were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test. The relationship between the results of motor and sensory assessments was analyzed using Spearman’s correlation test. RESULTS: The mean gestational age of the infants was 29.58±2.09 weeks, their birth weights were 1233.87±251.22 grams, and their duration of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit was 26.48±9.58 days. There was a statistically significant difference between the Neuro Sensory Motor Developmental Assessment and Infant Sensory Profile-2 scores between the 1(st) and 4(th) months (p<0.05). It was found that there was a risk in terms of sensory development in 86–91% of the preterm infants at the 1(st) month and in 69–85% at the 4(th) month. There was moderate-strong degree of significant relationship between motor and sensory development. CONCLUSION: Considering the findings of our study, preterm infants are at risk for motor and sensory development. There is, therefore, a need for future research to investigate the effect of early sensory-based intervention approaches on preterm infants.