Influência da segunda etapa do Método Canguru no desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor de recém-nascidos de baixo peso aos 4 e aos 6 meses de idade gestacional corrigida

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the influence of the second stage of the Kangaroo Method, the Kangaroo Intermediate Care Unit (UCINCa), on child development at 4 and 6 months of corrected gestational age (CGA) of low weight preterm infants (PTI). Method: 72 low-weight (<1800g) PTIs, who were born in a university hospital at Minas Gerais/Brazil, participated in this study. The PTIs were divided into two groups, those who remained in the UCINCa (45) and those who remained only in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and/or Conventional Intermediate Care Unit (UCINCo) (27). The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III) was used to assess, at 4 and 6 months of CGA the domains: cognitive, language (expressive and receptive) and motor (fine and gross). Neonatal and maternal clinical and socioeconomic variables were also collected. The data were tested using T test and Wilcoxon for continuous variables and Chi-square for categorical variables. The software R (version 4.4.1) were used for analyses. The level of significance adopted was 5%. Results: The UCINCa group obtained significantly higher results than the NICU/UCINCo group in the expressive communication subscale (p = 0.04) at 4 months of CGA and fine motor at 4 (p = 0.04) and at 6 months of CGA (p = 0.02). Conclusion: the presence of full-time mothers during the second stage of the Kangaroo Method positively influenced the infant development of PTI, with emphasis on fine motor coordination and expressive communication.