Parental Five-to-Fifteen questionnaire in identifying motor difficulties at 5 years in children with later motor impairment: A longitudinal follow-up study of very preterm infants

Abstract

Children born very preterm have an increased risk for motor impairments. We aimed to evaluate motor performance at 5 years in children born very preterm with and without motor impairment using the parental questionnaire Five-to-Fifteen (FTF). This prospective follow-up study included 132 children born very preterm (gestational age < 32 weeks and/or birth weight < 1500 g) without neurodevelopmental impairment at 2 years. Parents filled out the FTF regarding the neurodevelopment of their 5-year-old children. Higher scores indicated more difficulties. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children - Second Edition (MABC-2) was performed to evaluate the motor outcome at 11 years. Total test scores <15th percentile denoted motor impairment. There were 23 (17.4 %) children with motor impairment. A 1-point increase in the FTF motor skills mean scores increased the risk of motor impairment to 19-fold (OR 19.1, 95 % CI 3.5-104.5, p = 0.001). Children with motor impairment had higher mean scores in the FTF motor skills compared to children without motor impairment (mean 0.56 vs. 0.26, p < 0.001), but also in Executive functions (0.63 vs. 0.40, p = 0.001), Perception (0.35 vs. 0.18, p < 0.001), Memory (0.51 vs. 0.31 p = 0.01) and Language (0.45 vs. 0.25, p = 0.02), respectively. Motor impairment was almost 20 times more likely when motor difficulties increased by 1 point in the FTF questionnaire. Moreover, children with motor impairment had more difficulties in all other developmental domains of the FTF. Based on these findings, the FTF parental questionnaire might be a useful tool in children's preventive health care to early identify motor impairment and its negative associations.