TITLE:
Psychomotor Development of Children Born Premature at the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital (Cameroon)
AUTHORS:
Séraphin Nguefack, Eric G. Ananfack, Evelyn Mah, Daniel Kago, Sandra Tatah, F. Puepi Yolande, Dominique Enyama, Diomede Noukeu, Andreas Chiabi, Felicité Dongmo Nguefack
KEYWORDS:
Premature Babies, Psychomotor Development, Yaounde, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.10 No.1,
March
6,
2020
ABSTRACT: Premature infants are at risk for developmental delay. We assessed the psychomotor development of children born before 37 weeks of gestation.Methods:This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in the Pediatric Department of the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital from January to May 2018. We used the Denver II scale to assess the psychomotor development of children born premature aged 9 months to 6 years. Children born between January 2012 and April 2017 at a gestational age strictly below 37 weeks of gestation were included. Using logistic regression, we searched for perinatal factors associated with abnormalities of psychomotor developmental.Results:We included 50 children in our study, 60% of whom were boys, giving a sex ratio of 1.5. The mean age was 25 ± 19.5 months. The mean gestational age was 33 ± 2.2 weeks and the mean birth weight was 2178.68 ± 748.01 g. The average Developmental Quotient of the population was 108. Six children (12%) had a global developmental delay (DQ 70), 22% of the children had a language delay. Convulsion was associated with motor delay (OR = 16; P = 0.03), and pregnancy monitoring a protective factor for language delay (P = 0.02).Conclusion:Improving perinatal care remains a preoccupying issue. The assessment of psychomotor development should be done until early childhood to enable early diagnosis of learning disabilities.