Evaluation of predisposing factors for developmental delay of pre-term infants in the first year of life

Background: Developmental delay in preterm infants was estimated to be more common than term infants. Identifying the factors predisposing to developmental delay can help experts and health professionals in this field to prevent developmental delay of the infants, and leads to better management of the condition of them. This study aimed to evaluate and investigate the predisposing factors of developmental delay in preterm infants in the first year of their lives. Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 87 preterm infants were enrolled in the study by convenience sampling during the period of April 2016 to the end of March 2017 from two educational hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Imam Hussein hospital and Mahdiyeh hospital). Demographic and other initial data such as age, sex, gestational age, and the data about clinical problems observed at birth were collected through infants' medical records and were recorded in a special form for each infant. Also, the ASQ test was used to assess infants' developmental status at one year of age. Results: Based on the findings, 23 infants (26.4%) had the abnormal developmental condition at the end of one year. There was a significant relationship between infants' developmental status and their age, birth height, one-year-old weight, one-year-old height, duration of ventilator use, Apgar scores at first and twentieth minutes, seizures, reflex reduction, pneumonia, breastfeeding status in the first year of life, Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), receiving occupational therapy services, and electrocardiogram (ECG) findings at one year of age. Among these variables, only breastfeeding status in the first year of life was able to predict infants' developmental status at the end of one year (OR=0.18). Conclusion: This study showed that the risk of developmental delay in preterm infants who are breastfed in the first year of life or fed the combination of breast milk and supplemental feeding is one-fifth lower than other preterm infants who were not breastfed.