O perfil desenvolvimental de um grupo de crianças nascidas prematuramente

: exploração de fatores de risco

Abstract

Prematurity is an issue that has sparked several investigations due to its impact on the development. Therefore, we have established the relevance of its study, since the risk factors associated with prematurity appear to be important in the development process, establishing itself as a risk to the favorable development. The main goal of the present study is to characterize the developmental profile of a group of 36 children born prematurely, at a hospital located in the North of the Country, in order to understand the relationship between prematurity and biological and environmental risk factors (VLBW and ELBW). The more specific aims of the present study were to: 1) characterize the development of children born prematurely, according to The Griffiths Mental Development Scales (Griffiths, 2006); 2) understand the relationship between children’s clinical history (including birth weight, gestational age and hospitalization period) and their development profile; 3) explore other environmental factors (frequency of kindergarten, career, parents’ educational levels) and its relation with the child developmental profile. In general, results have shown a relationship between the biological risk factors: a lower gestational age is associated with a lower birth weight and longer duration of hospitalization, which is supported by the literature. It also appears that a longer hospitalization is associated with a lower performance at developmental level. Concernig the environmental factors we found that higher levels of mothers’ educational levels are associated with better performance at a developmental level.

Date of Award	21 Jul 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Elisa Veiga (Supervisor)