Abstract
Children born prematurely often have worse cognitive performance than those born at term regarding skills such as memory, attention and processing speed. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia may compromise cognitive development. The aims here were: a) To describe the cognitive performance of preterm infants with very low birth weight; b) To investigate its association with bronchopul-monary dysplasia adjusted for sociodemographic, neonatal and post-neonatal factors. Cross-sectional study developed in a public tertiary-care hospital. To evaluate cognition among 112 children, we applied an intelligence scale (Wechsler scale). The average scores for children with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia were compared across the fve domains of the scale. Associations with bronchopulmonary dysplasia were investigated for domains that showed signifcant diferences between the two groups. Associations between exposure and outcome were estimated via multivariate logistic regression. There were no diferences in averages for the full-scale intelligence quotient, verbal intelligence quotient, performance intelligence quotient and general language composite domains. The processing speed quotient was the only domain that presented a signifcant diference between the two groups (P = 0.02). Among the children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, low full-scale intelligence quotient was observed in 28.1%. In the multivariate analysis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (odds ratio: 3.1; 95conf-dence interval: 1.1-8.7) remained associated with the outcome of processing speed quotient. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was an independent risk factor for alteration of the processing speed quotient.
Highlights
Premature infants may suffer from pulmonary and brain injury, along with infections early in life, making them more vulnerable to neurodevelopmental abnormalities.[1]
We evaluated whether bronchopulmonary dysplasia had an effect on the outcome of processing speed quotient independently of the other factors
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia has been shown to be an independent risk factor for cognitive alteration of skills relating to processing speed
Summary
Premature infants may suffer from pulmonary and brain injury, along with infections early in life, making them more vulnerable to neurodevelopmental abnormalities.[1] In comparison with full-term children, premature children present worse cognitive performance[1,2,3] in skills such as memory, attention, processing speed and representational competence.[4]. Inefficiency in acquisition of elementary skills, such as attention and processing speed, can have a significant influence on their development of other more complex skills. These elementary skills form the basis from which other cognitive abilities develop. Academic performance and cognitive skills within children’s future lives are influenced by executive functions as well as processing speed. It is important to identify early problems within each of these elementary skills, so as to intervene and potentially limit more generalized cognitive deficits.[5]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
