Concurrent validity of the Neurobehavioural Assessment for Pre-term Infants (NAPI) at term age.
BACKGROUND
Accurate measurement of neonatal neurological integrity is critical for early identification of pre-term and full-term infants at-risk for developmental disability. The Neurobehavioural Assessment for Pre-term Infants (NAPI) was developed to measure the progression of neurobehavioural development in pre-term infants born between 32 weeks post-conceptional age (PCA) and term. This instrument has many unique advantages; however, criterion validity is unknown and results are subsequently difficult to interpret.


OBJECTIVE
This study examined the concurrent validity of the NAPI against a criterion instrument, the Einstein Neonatal Neurobehavioural Assessment Scale (ENNAS), which measures similar constructs and has demonstrated excellent reliability and validity.


METHODS
A sample of 41 pre-term and full-term infants (40 +/- 2 weeks) was assessed with the NAPI and ENNAS on the same day.


RESULTS
The findings demonstrated that correlations between similar NAPI clusters and ENNAS clusters ranged from 0.35-0.65 and correlations between many similar individual NAPI and ENNAS items ranged from 0.40-0.60. Two NAPI clusters also discriminated between normal, abnormal and suspect performance on the ENNAS.


CONCLUSIONS
The NAPI has many unique advantages as a tool. It examines neonates serially, has established weekly normative data and requires minimal infant handling. This study provides new validation of the NAPI instrument.
Hyman
Chaya
C
Early Intervention, New York, USA.
Snider
Laurie M
LM
Majnemer
Annette
A
Mazer
Barbara
B
D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003448:Crying / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology*; D007508:Irritable Mood / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology