Follow-up Visit of High Risk Infants

The NICHD Neonatal Research Network's Follow-Up study is a multi-center cohort study in which surviving extremely low birth-weight infants undergo neurodevelopmental, neurosensory and functional assessments at 22-26 months corrected age (Infants born prior to July 1, 2012 were seen at 18-22 month corrected age). The goal of the study is to identify potential maternal and neonatal risk factors that may affect infant neurodevelopment, including:

• Evaluating development of motor skills, cognitive skills, language and behavior

• Determining mortality and the prevalence of specific medical conditions

• Assessing the relationship between growth and neurodevelopmental outcome

• Assessing the relationship between the socioeconomic status and developmental outcome

• Assessing the use of special support services and early intervention programs by this population

• Evaluating the need for follow-up at school age.

The scheduled evaluations collect: demographic information; socioeconomic status; medical history; medications; medical equipment required; growth data; a detailed neurologic examination; Bayley Scales of Infant Development (mental, motor, infant behavior); Child Behavior Checklist.

A sub-study will assess a reference group comprised of a limited number of healthy term infants born in Network centers to meet the following three aims: 1) to avoid potential ascertainment biases due to examiner expectations when only extremely preterm or other high-risk infants are assessed 2) in the absence of well-developed norms for the Bayley Scales, to define thresholds for impairment based on data for a representative sample of healthy children born at term in our centers and concurrently assessed by the same examiners as for our high-risk infants; and 3) to help identify and address when "drift" occurs over time in conducting and scoring Bayley assessments.