| 제목 |
Early Assessment of Visual Impairment in Preterm Infants using the PreViAs Questionnaire. |
| 소속 |
Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine1 |
| 저자 |
Mee Gang Kim1*, Jungjae Lee1, Donggyun Sohn1, Soyeon Jun1, Kyung Eun Nam1, Ah-Ra Cho1, Joo Hyun Park1† |
Introduction;
Preterm birth is known as a risk factor for deficit of neurological and cognitive development. Among various neurobehavioral deficits in preterm infants, visual difficulties may not only be due to ophthalmologic diseases but also be caused by problems in higher cerebral structures. Early visual assessment in high-risk infant can be helpful to predict later visual and cognitive outcome as well as to measure existing deficits. There are several tools to assess visual function in children, but most of them are time-consuming and require an experienced evaluator.
Materials & Methods;
The Preverbal Visual Assessment (PreViAs) questionnaire designed by V. Pueyo et. al, is a easy tool which is proven effective to assess visual cognitive abilities in healthy children or in children with high risk under 24 months of age, through primary caregivers' answers. The PreViAs questionnaire consists of 30 items, and each item is related to one or more of four domains of visual behaviors (Table. 1). The authors have set the normal references in full term infants, and validation was performed in infants with abnormal visual maturation.
We preliminarily introduced this questionnaire to the patient and caregiver visiting our outpatient clinic to assess the visual behaviors in preterm infants. The caregivers of 90 patients have completed the questionnaire. Among them, 67 patients were under 24 months of age, and 34 patients were born at preterm. The ages of preterm infants were corrected according to their gestational age at birth, ranged from 0.10 to 17.99 months, and divided into 7 groups. The domains were scored as the sum of the items corresponding to each visual cognitive behavior. The mean scores of each domain were compared to the standard references at each age group.
Results & Discussion;
The number of preterm infants in each corrected age group, and the mean scores of each visual domain are shown in Table 2. As the sample size was very small, we looked over general tendency in preterm infants compared to the references of each domain. The mean global scores in preterm infants were generally lower than the references, except for age 4 to 5.99 months, 6 to 8.99 months, and 12 to 14.99 months. The mean scores of visual-motor coordination were lower than the references in all age groups. The mean scores of visual processing in preterm infants at each age group were generally lower than the references, except for age 12 to 14.99 months. The mean scores of visual communication were generally lower than the references, except for age 4 to 5.99months, and 12 to 14.99 months. The mean scores of visual attention were lower in age 0 to 1.99 months, 2 to 3.99 months, and 15 to 17.99 months than the references. (Figure 1)
The PreViAs questionnaire can be a quick and easy tool to assess the visual cognitive abilities of each domain in preterm infants. Further studies are necessary to validate the usefulness of the questionnaire for this purpose. |
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The Preverbal Visual Assessment (PreViAs) questionnaire. Developed by V. Pueyo et. al, Development of the Preverbal Visual Assessment (PreViAs) questionnaire, Early Human Development 90 (2014) 165–168. Abbreviations: VA, visual attention; VC, visual communication; VMC, visuomotor coordination; VP; visual processing
The number of preterm infants in each corrected age group, and the mean scores of each visual domain.
The mean scores of each visual domain at each age group in preterm infants, compared to the normal references. Blue; The mean scores of normal infants (from V. Pueyo et. al, Development of the Preverbal Visual Assessment (PreViAs) questionnaire), Red; The mean scores of preterm infants.
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