A Longitudinal Study of Effectiveness of Early Intervention for Preterm Infants
Condition: Premature Birth
MeSH terms: Premature Birth
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The main purpose of this study is to extend the investigators' previous research to
      longitudinally examine the effectiveness of three early intervention programs: usual care
      program, clinic-based intervention program and home-based intervention program for very low
      birth weight preterm children at 3 and 4 years of age. Normal weight full-term children will
      also be included to serve as the reference group. Effectiveness assessments will include
      child, parenting, and transactions measures. Child outcome measures will include health
      status, growth, neurodevelopment and behavior; parenting outcome measures will include
      parental stress, competence, efficacy and family support; transactions outcome measure will
      include parent-child interaction procedures.
    

Detailed description: 
      Accumulating data on early intervention for preterm infants illustrated short-term benefits
      on enhancing child development and decreasing parental stress, particularly for those of
      heavier birth weights. However, rare studies had designed early intervention program for
      small preterm infants and longitudinally examined the effectiveness in various outcome
      domains. Our research team recently conducted a clinical randomization trial on the
      effectiveness of three early intervention programs: usual care program (UCP), clinic-based
      intervention program (CBIP) and home-based intervention program (HBIP) on very low birth
      weight (VLBW, birth weight <1,500 g) preterm infants from the neonatal period to two years
      corrected age (CA). The latter two were comprehensive, intensive intervention programs that
      combined child- and parent-focused services beginning in hospitalization and ending at one
      year CA as delivered at clinic and home respectively. This three-year research project has
      extended our previous work to longitudinally examine the effectiveness of the three
      intervention programs in 180 VLBW preterm infants at 3 and 4 years of age. Sixty full-term
      infants will also be included to serve as the reference group. Outcome measures will include
      child (i.e., health, growth, neurodevelopment and behavior), parenting (i.e., parental
      stress, competency, efficacy and family support) and mother-child transactions (i.e.,
      free-play and frustrating episode). The longitudinal data on the effectiveness of these early
      intervention programs for VLBW preterm infants will provide important information to help
      early intervention professionals and public policy makers to develop effective intervention
      for preterm children at risk for developmental problems.
    

Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Prospective
Sampling method: Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Term and VLBW preterm children were born at the National Taiwan University Hospital and the
        Mackay Memorial Hospital (MMH)
      
Keywords: Early intervention; Mother-child interaction; Neurodevelopment; Parenting; Prematurity; Preschool age