Amitava PAL, Sourav MANNA, Prakash C. DHARA

Comparison between the motor function of school-aged children with normal birth weight and children with low birth weight: a cross-sectional study

Low birth weight (LBW) children are prone to abnormal neurological signsin tone, coordination and reflexes, due to neonatal complications which leadto development of motor deficits and delays. The aim of the present studywas a comparison between the motor function of school-age children withnormal birth weight (NBW) and children with LBW. This study was conductedwith 471 school-aged children from different districts of West Bengal, India.Different socio-demographic variables of the participants were studied byusing a pre-structured schedule questionnaire. Gross motor function wasstudied by standing broad jump and vertical jump whereas fine motor functionwas studied by hand reaction time and speed of movement. Jumping skill wasbetter among the boys than girls which implied that the gross motor skillof boys was better than girls. However, the hand reaction time and speed ofmovement among the girls was better than that of boys which implied that thefine motor skill of girls was better than boys. The postnatal growth of LBWchildren was significantly lower than that of NBW children. Both gross andfine motor performances of LBW children were significantly poorer than thatof NBW children. This study found a strong association between birth weightand motor skills among school-age children even after controlling for theeffects of age, gestational age, postnatal growth (height, weight and BMI) andsocioeconomic status in a multivariable model. Thus, it appears that babieswho are born with LBW have a tendency of neuro-developmental impairmentsduring their childhood. Therefore, long-term monitoring programs and earlydetection and intervention is necessary in order to minimize future sequelae.The finding of this study indicates the importance of paying special attentionto developmental follow up of high risk and LBW infants. It is proposed thatmore diagnostic evaluations be conducted on LBW infants for all aspects ofdevelopment.

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