Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Early Intervention for Preterm Infants
Brief Summary: The first aim is to develop a clinic-based intervention program and a home-based intervention program for VLBW preterm infants that have common intervention services but are respectively delivered at clinic and home. The interventions are comprehensive that combine child- and parent-focused services including health and feeding consultation, education of child development skills, intervention of mother-infant interaction, and parent support. The eleven-session interventions are intensive that begin in hospitalization and end at 12 months of corrected age. The clinical feasibility and usefulness of implementing these intervention programs within the context of randomized intervention study subject to the existing constraints of the hospital and home settings will be tested in a pilot study.

The second aim is to conduct a randomized control trial to examine the costs and effectiveness of the UCP, the CBIP, and the HBIP for VLBW preterm infants. Gender and socio-economically matched normal full-term infants will also be included as a comparison group. Outcome measures that include child, parenting, and transactions outcomes will be compared between groups. Child outcome measures will include health status, growth, neurodevelopment, and neurosensory status; parenting outcome measures will include maternal parenting competence, social support, and psychological stress; transactions outcome measure will be mother-infant interaction. Costs (direct and indirect costs) associated with each early intervention program during the follow-up period will be estimated. Average and incremental cost/effectiveness ratio will be calculated to determine which early intervention program is most cost-effective for VLBW preterm infants.


Options:
A: Inclusion Criteria for preterm infants:

* BW below 1,501 gm
* GA under 37 weeks
* Admission to the NICU within the first 7 days of life
* Physiologically stable at PCA 36 weeks as diagnosed by attending physician
* Hospital discharge prior to PCA 40 weeks
* Absence of congenital anomalies and/or severe neonatal diseases
* Family residence in the greater Taipei area.

Exclusion Criteria for preterm infants:

* Severe neonatal diseases included major neurologic abnormalities (such as seizures, hydrocephalus, ventriculoperitoneal shunt, meningitis, periventricular leukomalacia, grade III-IV intraventricular hemorrhage, and grade IV retinopathy of prematurity)
* Necrotizing enterocolitis with colostomy
* Severe cardiopulmonary disease requiring daily oxygen use at hospital discharge

Inclusion Criteria for full-term infants:

* Birth weight \>2,500 g;
* Gestational age within 38-42 weeks,
* Family living in the same geographic region as those of the VLBW preterm infants

Exclusion Criteria for full-term infants:

* Serious prenatal or perinatal complications
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* Infant is born a singleton or twin in the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York City
* Infant is born 26 and 34 weeks post-conceptional age (PCA)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Mothers cannot understand or speak English
* Mother has history of drug addiction, psychosis or other severe mental illness
* There is not at least one adult other than the mother in the home
* Infant birth weight is below the third percentile for gestational age
* Infant has significant congenital defects
C: Inclusion Criteria:

* Preterm infants, gestational age between 28-34 weeks
* Families with ability to take care of the child, without chronic or mental illness
* Long-term parental presence in the hospital (at least 10h/day)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Children diagnosed with congenital disease or brain injury (LPV, HIV), before or during the study
* Children undergoing major surgery (cardiac intervention, Ductus, thoracic intervention)
* Children with musculoskeletal deformities
D: Inclusion Criteria:

* i) abnormal neurological signs (i.e. neurological signs at the Hammersmith Infant Neurological Assessment -HINE- and according to Prechtl's Assessment GMA) at 2-4 mts post term age
* ii) neuroimaging evidence of brain lesion indicated by MRI performed around the term age (4-6 wks post term)
* iii) achieved predefined motor development scores assessed by Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3
* iv) informed consent agreement

Exclusion Criteria:

* i) Drug resistant seizures,
* ii) Severe sensory deficits (blindness or deafness)
* iii) Progressive neurological disorders
* iv) Malformation of CNS

Answer: A