The evaluation of oral feeding ability in preterm infants

Abstract

Objective To study the efficacy of the preterm oral feeding assessment scale(POFAS) in evaluating oral feeding capacity in preterm infants of different gestational age. Method Revised POFAS including the preterm oral feeding readiness assessment scale and sucking ability scale was used to dynamically evaluate the oral feeding capacity of the stable preterm infants with corrected gestational age (CGA) ≥32+4 weeks. The ratio of actual oral intake volume to planned feeding volume (A/P) was measured, and the correlation of the POFAS score and A/P ratio was studied using Pearson correlation analysis. The risk factors of the A/P ratio was studied using Logistic regression analysis. The receiveroperating characteristic(ROC) curve was drawn to explore the predictive value of POFAS score for A/P ratio reaching 50%. Result A total of 44 infants (59.1% male) with 158 times of evaluation were enrolled in the study. The gestational age was (30.9±2.1) weeks, and the birth weight was (1 543±478) g. The enteral feeding was started at (31.1±2.0) weeks of CGA, the oral feeding at (33.7±1.4) weeks, and complete oral feeding at (34.9±1.3) weeks. When reaching the same CGA, infants born at earlier gestational age had a smaller A/P ratio. Pearson correlation analysis showed that with CGA>33 weeks, all the indicators can predict the feeding conditions of the infants, the POFAS score was positively correlated with the A/P ratio (P<0.05). The ROC for the POFAS score to predict a 50% A/P ratio was 0.951 (P<0.05), and the cut-off value was 6.5 (sensitivity 93.8%, specificity 83.3%).The POFAS score and sucking ability score were the risk factors of a 50% A/P ratio in preterm infants with 34 weeks CGA. Conclusion Revised POFAS can be effectively used to assess preterm infants′ oral feeding ability, promote oral feeding and early discharge from the hospital. Key words: Breast feeding; Infant, premature; Assessment scale; Oral feeding