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 and 4 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 and 4 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 month and in 69-85% at the 4 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.