[Neuropsychological development of late preterm infants and early term infants at the age of 1 year: a follow-up study].

Objective: To study the level of neuropsychological development in late preterm infants and early term infants at the age of 1 year.

Methods: A total of 1 257 children with a corrected age of 1 year were enrolled as subjects. According to gestational age at birth, they were divided into an early preterm group (28-33 weeks), a late preterm group (34-36 weeks), an early term group (37-38 weeks), and a full-term group (39-41 weeks). Gesell Developmental Schedules were used to assess the neuropsychological development of the children, and the groups were compared in terms of neuropsychological development at the age of 1 year.

Results: There were significant differences in the developmental quotients of the five functional areas (adaptability, gross motor, fine motor, language and social ability) between the four groups at the age of 1 year (P<0.05), and the full-term infants had the highest development quotients, followed by the early term infants, the late preterm infants, and the early preterm infants (P<0.05). The full-term infants had the lowest rate of developmental delay in each functional area, while the early preterm infants had the highest rate (P<0.05). Compared with the full-term infants, the early term infants had a higher risk of developmental delay in adaptability (OR=1.796, P<0.05), and the late preterm infants had a higher risk of developmental delay in adaptability (OR=2.651, P<0.05) and fine motor (OR=2.679, P<0.05), while the early preterm infants had a higher risk of developmental delay in adaptability (OR=4.069, P<0.05), fine motor (OR=3.710, P<0.05), and social ability (OR=3.515, P<0.05).

Conclusions: The risk of neuropsychological developmental delay decreases with the increase in gestational age in children at the age of 1 year, with a dose-response effect. There are varying degrees of developmental delay in early term infants and late preterm infants, and health care follow-up for early term infants and late preterm infants should be taken seriously.