Associations of preterm and early-term birth with suspected developmental coordination disorder:a national retrospective cohort study in children aged 3-10 years

Background This study analyzed the motor development and suspected developmental coordination disorder of very and moderately preterm(<34^(+0) gestational age),late preterm(34^(+0)-36^(+6)gestational week),and early-term(37^(+0)-38^(+6) gestational week)children compared to their full-term peers with a national population-based sample in China.Methods A total of 1673 children(799 girls,874 boys)aged 3-10 years old were individually assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-second edition(MABC-2).The association between gestational age and motor performance of children was analyzed using a multilevel regression model.Results The global motor performance[β=-5.111,95%confidence interval(CI)=-9.200 to-1.022;P=0.015]and bal-ance(β=-5.182,95%CI=-5.055 to-1.158;P=0.003)for very and moderately preterm children aged 3-6 years old were significantly lower than their full-term peers when adjusting for confounders.Late preterm and early-term children showed no difference.Moreover,very and moderately preterm children aged 3-6 years had a higher risk of suspected devel-opmental coordination disorder(DCD)(≤5 percentile of MABC-2 score)when adjusting for potential confounders[odds ratio(OR)=2.931,95%CI=1.067-8.054;P=0.038].Late preterm and early-term children showed no difference in motor performance from their full-term peers(each P>0.05).Conclusions Our findings have important implications for understanding motor impairment in children born at different gestational ages.Very and moderately preterm preschoolers have an increased risk of DCD,and long-term follow-up should be provided for early detection and intervention.