NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE IN LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT PRESCHOOLERS - A POPULATION-BASED, CONTROLLED-STUDY

The aim was to evaluate neuropsychological performance and its pre-, a nd perinatal predictors in low birth weight (LBW) preschool children. A population-based sample of 137 5-year-old children with birth weight s less than 2000 g and without major handicaps was compared with a ran dom sample of 152 normal birth weight term controls. Main assessment t ools were all subscales from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Revised, subscales from the Illinois Test of Psycholin guistic Abilities and tests of manual dexterity and figure copying. Th e LBW children showed significantly lower mean scores compared to cont rols on tests of visuo-spatial and visuo-motor abilities, but were com parable to controls in other areas, confounding parental factors were controlled for. 14 of the LBW children, there were signs of maternal c horio-amnionitis. Twelve of these had premature rupture of membranes l asting more than 24 h. These 14 children had a mean performance IQ of 87 (SD 5) compared to 100 (SD 15) for the LBW children without materna l signs of chorio-amnionitis (P = 0.001). Having a small head circumfe rence at birth was a less powerful, but statistically significant pred ictor of impaired performance. Conclusion Low birth weight is associat ed with impaired performance on visuo-spatial and visuo-motor tasks. S igns of maternal chorio-amnionitis and a small head circumference at b irth may be risk factors for such impairment.