Perinatal risk factors for neurocognitive impairments in preschool very preterm children

E.S. Potharst, A.G. van Wassenaer, B.A. Houtzager, J.H. Kok, P.F. Last, J. Oosterlaan

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Aim This study aimed to compare a broad array of neurocognitive functions (processing speed, aspects of attention, executive functioning, visual-motor coordination, and both face and emotion recognition) in very preterm and term-born children and to identify perinatal risk factors for neurocognitive dysfunctions. Method Children who were born very preterm (n=102; 46 males, 56 females), defined as a gestational age of less than 30weeks and/or birthweight under 1000g, and a comparison group of term-born children (n=95; 40 males, 55 females) were assessed at age 5 with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Stop Signal Task, several tasks of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks, and a Digit Span task. Results When sociodemographic characteristics were taken into account, very preterm children scored worse than term-born children on all neurocognitive functions, except on tasks measuring inhibition and sustained attention, for which results were inconclusive. Effect sizes for group effects were small to medium (r
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)178-184
JournalDevelopmental Medicine and Child Neurology
Volume55
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

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