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Am J Perinatol 1983; 1(1): 12-20
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-1000044
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

© 1983 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.

Newborn Neurologic Maturity Relates More Strongly to Concurrent Somatic Development Than Gestational Age

David Rush1 , Patricia Cassano2 , Arlene Urie Wilson2 , Richard J. Koenigsberger3 , Jacob Cohen4
  • 1Division of Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
  • 2Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
  • 3Department of Pediatric Neurology, College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey
  • 4Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York
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Publication History

Publication Date:
04 March 2008 (online)

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ABSTRACT

The nineteen-item assessment of newborn neurologic maturity developed by Koenigsberger was applied to 682 infants born to women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of nutritional supplementation in a poor, urban, black, clinic population.

The total score of the neurologic scale, four clusters of items derived from principal component factor analysis followed by a varimax rotation, and the four clusters taken simultaneously (using Cohen's method of set correlation) were related to the conceptional age, weight, length, and head circumference of the infants.

Taken in any of these ways, neurologic maturity was more strongly related to somatic development than to conceptional age. Although these results are consistent with a set pattern and order of neurologic development, they are incompatible with such a pattern following a rigid and universal time scale. Rather, at all stages of conceptional age, there appears to be a range of neurologic maturity, related more strongly to concurrent somatic development than to the child's conceptional age.

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