Rates of Developmental Coordination Disorder in Children Born Very Preterm

Objective To examine the stability of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) throughout childhood in children born very pretermand term. Further, in the very pretermgroup, to compare perinatal variables and neurobehavioral outcomes at 13 years of age for children with persisting DCD and those with typical motor development. Study design Prospective study of 180 very preterm and 73 term-born children assessed at 5, 7, and/or 13 years of age using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, with scores <= 16th percentile used to classify DCD. Children with cerebral palsy or an IQ of <80 were excluded. Results Children born very preterm had increased odds for DCD at 5 (OR, 5.53; 95% CI, 2.53-12.0; P < .001), 7 (OR, 3.63; 95% CI, 1.43-9.18; P = .06), and 13 years (OR, 4.34; 95% CI, 1.61-11.7; P = .004) compared with termborn children. The rates of DCD in very preterm children reduced from 47.9% at 5 years of age, to 28.5% at 7 years and 27.8% at 13 years of age (OR per year of age, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75-0.87; P < .001), but less so for term-born children (15.3%, 10.0%, and 8.5% at 5, 7, and 13-years respectively [OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.75-1.09; P = .31]). Within the very preterm group at 13 years of age, there was evidence that children with persisting DCD performed poorer across several cognitive domains compared with children with typical motor development, with differences in the order of 0.5-1.0 SD. Conclusions Although the rates of DCD decreased across middle childhood for both groups, the odds for DCD were consistently higher for very preterm children compared with term, with important implications for cognitive functioning in the very preterm group.

Automated summary

The study found that premature children had a higher risk of DCD throughout childhood compared to term-born children, despite a decrease in the proportion of DCD with age. At 13 years old, premature children with persistent DCD performed poorly in cognitive domains compared to those with typical motor development.