Developmental outcome of the preterm babies born in a tertiary care unit, jaffna, sri lanka, during first year of life by using bayley scales of infant and toddler development

Abstract

Developmental functioning of infants and young children who are between 1 month and 42 months of old age is being assessed by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) tool. The aim of this study was to assess developmental outcome of the preterm babies during their one year of life. A longitudinal study was conducted among 173 preterm babies who were born between 28+1- 36 +6 weeks of gestation during the period of October 2015 to February 2017 in Teaching Hospital, Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The mean gestational age was 35(±1.96) weeks. Among the preterm babies, 52.6% (91 babies) were males. The mean birth weight of the preterm babies was 2.23 (±0.58) kg. The mean cognitive score at their 3, 6 and 12 months were 87.6 (±9.9), 98.4 (±9.9), 95.1 (±6.8) respectively. The mean language score at their 3, 6 and 12 months were 96.8 (±10.6), 97.7 (±11.8), 101.2 (±89.1) respectively. The mean motor score at their 3, 6 and 12 months were 86.9 (±9.1), 97.7 (±11.8), 92.9 (±8.5) respectively. In paired t- test, cognitive scores increased significantly between 3 and 6 months of age (p= 0.000) and between 3 and 12 months of age (p=0.000), while decreased between 6 and 12 months of age (p=0.013). Language scores increased significantly between 3 and 6months (p=0.009). Motor scores increased significantly between 3 and 6 months (p=0.000) and between 3 and 12 months (p=0.000). In this present study it was found that cut-off of composite score of 70 was appropriate to define developmental delay.