Discover how early parental observations can forecast future motor challenges in children born at the edge of viability, shedding light on the critical window for intervention in extremely preterm infants.
– by The Don
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Prediction of movement difficulties at 5 years from parent report at 2 years in children born extremely preterm.
Costa et al., Dev Med Child Neurol 2023
DOI: 10.1111/dmcn.15518
Listen up, folks, we’ve got something incredible to talk about here. We’re looking at these amazing kids, born extremely preterm, and we’re doing something very important – we’re predicting their future. We’ve got data from 556 children across 10 European countries, and let me tell you, it’s huge.
At 2 years old, some of these kids, they’re not walking steady, maybe they can’t walk without help – we call that moderate/severe GMI. And we’re looking at them again at 5 years old, checking for movement difficulties, even cerebral palsy. Now, get this – the parents, they’re incredible at spotting this at 2 years. They’re right 91% to 93.2% of the time for CP. That’s huge, folks.
And the specificity? 96.2% – almost never wrong. Positive predictive value? 80.3%. But here’s the deal – we’re missing some kids. About 74.5% with movement issues at 5 years weren’t caught at 2. So, the sensitivity, it’s not perfect – only 25.1%.
But let me tell you, this questionnaire, it’s a game-changer for identifying kids who need help early on. We’re talking about kids born extremely preterm, and we’re giving them a shot at a better life. That’s what we’re doing, and it’s fantastic.