Language outcomes at 36 months in prematurely born children is associated with the quality of developmental care in NICUs

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the quality levels of NICU developmental care (DC) and language skills at 36 months in very preterm (VPT) children. Study Design: Language skills of 78 VPT children from 19 NICUs and 90 full-term controls was assessed using a s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of perinatology 2016-09, Vol.36 (9), p.768-774
Main Authors: Montirosso, R, Giusti, L, Del Prete, A, Zanini, R, Bellù, R, Borgatti, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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692/700
Age
Babies
Breastfeeding & lactation
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child development
Child Language
Child, Preschool
Children
Female
Health aspects
Humans
Infant
Infant Care - standards
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Infants
Infants (Premature)
Intensive Care Units, Neonatal
Italy
Language
Language skills
Language Tests
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Multivariate Analysis
Neonatal intensive care units
original-article
Pain
Pain Management
Pediatric research
Pediatric Surgery
Pediatrics
Premature birth
Psychological aspects
Quality management
Quality of Health Care - organization & administration
Quality of Life
Questionnaires
Skills
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Summary:Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the quality levels of NICU developmental care (DC) and language skills at 36 months in very preterm (VPT) children. Study Design: Language skills of 78 VPT children from 19 NICUs and 90 full-term controls was assessed using a standardized language test. We compared children’ language task performance by splitting NICUs into units with high- and low-quality of DC according to two main factors: (1) infant centered care (ICC), and (2) infant pain management (IPM). Results: VPT children from low-care units with respect to ICC obtained lower scores in sentence comprehension, compared to children from high-care units. No differences were found between preterm children from high-quality ICC NICUs and full-term children. Conclusions: Findings suggest that higher quality of DC related to infant centered care can mitigate delays in language skills at 36 months in children born VPT.
ISSN:0743-8346
1476-5543
DOI:10.1038/jp.2016.57