Longitudinal Development of Segmental Trunk Control in Full Term and Preterm Infants- a Pilot Study: Part II

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To explore the relationship between segmental trunk control and specific gross motor skills at 4, 8 and 12 months of (corrected) age in young infants.

Methods: Thirty-one preterm infants and 30 full-term infants were recruited by convenience. All infants were tested using the Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control and the Alberta Infant Motor Scale at 4, 8 and 12 months of age.

Results: The gross motor function in supine at 4 months and in the standing position at 12 months was significantly delayed in the preterm infants. Positive correlations were found between segmental trunk control levels and specific motor skills in prone, supine, sitting and standing positions at 8 and 12 months of age.

Conclusion: This report was the first to demonstrate the association between segmental trunk control and specific gross motor skills in young infants. This new information provides clinicians with greater understanding about infant development.

KEYWORDS:

• Infant
• postural control
• child development
• motor skills

Acknowledgments

The authors would thank Miss Joyce HL Choi and Miss Cissi SN Fong for their assistance in data collection and management and all the infants and their parents who participated in this study.

Authors’ contributions

TWP designed the study, collected, analysed and interpreted the data, wrote the manuscript and was fund-holder of this study. PBB designed the study, acted as the blinded assessor, analysed, interpreted the data, and significantly contributed to writing the manuscript. HMC designed the study, recruited study infants, analysed and interpreted the data. SLS designed the study, recruited study infants, analysed and interpreted the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and material

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of interest

All authors have nothing to declare.

Ethics approval and consent to participants

This research study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approvals were granted from the Departmental Research Committee, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HSEARS20140214001) and Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong- New Territories East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee (2014.193). Parents of all participating infants signed an informed consent before data collection on their infants.

Publications in scientific meetings or journals

1. The findings of the manuscript was presented as a poster at the European Academy of Childhood Disability Conference 2018 on 29-31 May 2018 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The presentation has been selected as one of the best 200 presentations, and the abstract was therefore published in a supplementary issue of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (Dev Med Child Neurol. 2018; 60, suppl. 2: 50).

2. Part of the results of the study infants has been published in the BMC Pediatrics (BMC Pediatr. 2018; 18: 182) titled “Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control in infants from 4 to 9 months of age- a psychometric study” by the same authors. The publication was mainly about the reliability and validity of the outcome measure.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University internal research funds (Project no.UA-2G and ZE-3G) granted to Dr Tamis W Pin. The funding body is not involved in the study design, collection, analyses, and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.