Neurodevelopmental follow up of preterm and term infants
Information for Parents and Carers
This is a Scottish, multi-centre, follow-up study involving a group of preterm and term infants born 4-5 years ago. At that time, the infants took part in a study to measure thyroid hormone levels in the first month of life. We are now assessing their neurodevelopmental status at their corrected age of 5.5 years to see if there is association between newborn thyroid hormone levels and later outcome.
These
infants were first recruited in 1998 in various hospitals around Scotland:
Aberdeen Maternity Hospital; Ayrshire Central Hospital; Ninewells Hospital
and Medical School, Dundee; Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion, Edinburgh;
Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital, Glasgow; Queen Mother’s Maternity
Hospital, Glasgow; Southern General Hospital, Glasgow; Forth Park Hospital,
Kirkcaldy; Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley; Stirling and Falkirk Forth
Valley; and Bellshill Maternity Hospital, Lanarkshire.
The thyroid hormone levels of over 800 infants had been recorded.
In
May 2005, we began to invite families to take part in the follow-up study.
By November 2005, approximately 140 families had been contacted, and
the majority of the parents have agreed to participate.
The follow-up study requires the child and mother or carer to attend
an appointment with one of our research psychologists.
These appointments are arranged in locations that are convenient for
the families, for example in their local hospital or GPs’ practice/Health
Centre. In the past five years, some families have moved and so the
appointments take place all over Britain: from Lerwick, Shetlands to
Carterton, Oxfordshire. The
majority of the appointments are held after school or on Saturdays.
During
the appointment the neurodevelopment of the child is assessed using the
British Picture Vocabulary Scale (1) and the McCarthy Scales of
Children’s Abilities (2). For
the vocabulary assessment, the psychologist reads a word to the child and,
from a choice of four different pictures, he/she has to point to the picture
that corresponds to the word. The
McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities consist of many different tasks
such as jigsaw puzzles, building with bricks and throwing and catching a
beanbag. The children enjoy
performing these tasks and frequently ask to attend again!
In the first six months of the follow-up study, 90 children have
participated.
It
is anticipated that the neurodevelopment assessments of the children will be
completed by June 2007 and the results of the study will be collated and
analysed thereafter. A summary
of the results will be published on this website and families who take part
in the follow up study will receive a written summary of the study’s main
findings. Please keep us
notified of any change of address, so that we can keep you fully informed.
Please use our change of address postcard that you received.
You
can find more detailed information regarding our research by exploring this
web site.
1.
Dunn LM, Dunn L,
Whetton C, Pintilie D. British Picture Vocabularly Scale: adapted from the
Peabody Picture Vocabularly Test - revised edition. Windsor: NFER - Nelson.,
1982.
2. McCarthy D. Manual for the McCarthy Scales of children's abilities.
New York. Psychological
Corporation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1972.
We are very pleased with the overall response rate, which at 1st June 2007, is 85% with 508 recruited infants who were born prematurely. This chart shows the response rates achieved in each participating centre. (There are a number of reasons why the response rates might vary between centres: we did not keep in contact with the families after the original study and the delay of 5.0 - 5.5 years makes tracing families very difficult; some centres may have a higher or lower proportion of families who move homes; and, some centres may have a higher or lower proportion of families who do not wish to take part.)
