Abstract
BackgroundChinese primary care settings have a heavy patient load, shortage of physicians, limited medical resources and low medical literacy, making it difficult to screen for developmental disorders in infants. The Infant Neurological International Battery (INFANIB) for the assessment of neuromotor developmental disorders in infants aged 0 ~ 18 months is widely applied in community health service centers because of its simplicity, time-saving advantages and short learning curve. We aimed to develop and assess a Chinese version of the INFANIB.MethodsA Chinese version of the INFANIB was developed. Fifty-five preterm and 49 full-term infants with high risk of neurodevelopmental delays were assessed using the Chinese version of the INFANIB at 3, 7 and 10 months after birth. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scale (PDMS) was simultaneously used to assess the children with abnormalities and diagnose cerebral palsy. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the scale were calculated.ResultsAt birth, a higher proportion of full-term infants had asphyxia (p < 0.001), brain damage ( p = 0.003) and hyperbilirubinemia ( p = 0.022). The interclass correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient values for the INFANIB at 3, 7 and 10 months were >0.8, indicating excellent reliability with regard to inter- and intraobserver differences. The specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were high for both high-risk premature infants and full-term infants at the age of 10 months. For premature infants at the age of 7 months or below, INFANIB had low validity for detecting abnormalities.ConclusionsThe Chinese version of the INFANIB can be useful for screening infants with high-risk for neuromotor abnormality in Chinese primary care settings.
Highlights
Chinese primary care settings have a heavy patient load, shortage of physicians, limited medical resources and low medical literacy, making it difficult to screen for developmental disorders in infants
Ultrasound scans performed 24–72 h after birth for preterm infants showed local or extensive echo enhancement in tissues surrounding the cerebral ventricle while ultrasound scans for full-term infants showed spotty local or diffuse echo enhancement in tissues surrounding the cerebral ventricle accompanied by changes in cerebral ventricular shape and fuzzy structure and intracranial hemorrhage
The Infant Neurological International Battery (INFANIB) and Peabody Developmental Motor Scale (PDMS) scores of all subjects were measured with questionnaires at 3, 7 and 10 months after birth
Summary
Chinese primary care settings have a heavy patient load, shortage of physicians, limited medical resources and low medical literacy, making it difficult to screen for developmental disorders in infants. The survival of high-risk infants with premature delivery, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, birth asphyxia, intraventricular hemorrhage or chronic lung diseases has increased significantly through the development of medical technology for perinatal care. China has an exceptionally large population, and the incidence of neuromotor abnormalities and cognitive and behavioral disorders in infants is increasing. It is imperative to develop a scale that is simple to apply, requires only a short time for assessment and provides favorable reliability and validity for identifying neuromotor abnormalities in infants in Chinese primary care settings
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