Motor Assessment of Infants With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

Abstract

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to describe the application of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development Motor Scale (BMS) in the assessment of infants infected with the human immunodeficiency virus; and second, to present descriptive motor scores for a sample of this population. A retrospective medical record review of BMS results was done on 25 infants with human immunodeficiency virus infection between 4 and 12 months of age. Relationships among test age (4–12 months), BMS raw score (2–39 months), BMS PDI score (less than 50–96 months), motor equivalent age (0.1–8.6 months), and weight (3–9.3 kg) were analyzed using linear regression and second order polynomial (quadratic) curve fitting. Results showed that test age was not a good predictor of BMS raw score. Based on raw score, a gross approximation of motor equivalent age can be determined from the BMS record form. Weight and motor equivalent age were positively correlated in this sample. In our sample 56% of the Psychomotor Development Index scores would have been lower than the minimum 50 allowed by the conventional BMS approach. Therefore, we recommend that for infants with severe developmental delay, linear interpolation of standard scores less than the cut-off of 50 should be used.