title: Gross motor skills of premature, very low-birthweight Chinese children.
abstract: We investigated whether premature, very low-birthweight (VLBW) Asian children without major handicap had poor motor skills compared with their normal birthweight counterparts. We compared a cohort of 42 preterm babies with birthweights <1500 g who participated in a developmental stimulation programme with 69 children of normal birthweight matched for age, gender and paternal education. VLBW children participated in the programme for 3 years and were followed to the age of 5-7 years. The VLBW cohort had significantly lower scores in B- and C-rated skills of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales. Their total score was also significantly lower. This is in agreement with studies in other populations that found that VLBW children had lower motor scores and that early interventions failed to ameliorate this motor disadvantage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. leesyr@netvigator.com
authors.forename: Shing Yan Robert
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chun Bong
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Pui Yee Amy
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yuen Bing
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Chi Chiu
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Shek
mesh_terms: D001824:Body Constitution; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000523:psychology*; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric