Movimentação espontânea e desenvolvimento motor de nascidos prematuros egressos de unidades de terapia intensiva neonatais até os seis meses de idade

Abstract

The General Movement Assessment (GMA) method is a more sensitive and specific assessment currently available to enable early identification of cerebral palsy in high-risk infants. Aim: To describe and classify motor development up to six months of premature life and its association with results in the period of Fidgety Movements. Materials and Methods: This is a longitudinal study, including premature newborns of both sexes and gestational age less than 34 weeks. Premature infants were selected at two months post-term to record general movement and motor development using the GMA and the Bayley motor scale. Infant and young child developmental scales, third edition (Bayley-III). For all analyzes considered as significance level α = 0.05 and tendency to differentiate values below 0.1. Results: Thirty-two infants were born, with a mean gestational age of 31 weeks. The General Movement Assessment indicates 21 (65.6%) absent or abnormal Fidgety Movements. A tendency of association was found at six months in the Motora Grossa subscale (p = 0.08), where 10 of the described FMs presented underperformance in this subscale. Conclusion: The study suggests that the absence of fidgety movements is associated with gross motor performance measured by the Bayley III Motor Scale after six months of corrected age. In addition, it suggests that a single assessment for classification in the required period of Fidgety Movements is not sufficient to view subsequent neurological outcomes.