The following is a summary of the article "Cognitive development at late infancy and school age in children cooled for neonatal encephalopathy." You can read the full article by clicking here.
The study looked at how well early cognitive tests predict later intelligence in children who were treated with cooling therapy (therapeutic hypothermia) for moderate to severe neonatal encephalopathy (NE) due to perinatal asphyxia, but who did not develop cerebral palsy. They followed 50 children born at or after 35 weeks gestation, assessing their development at about 18–21 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) and again at 6–8 years using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV).
The main findings:
- Bayley-III scores at 18–21 months were positively associated with IQ scores at 6–8 years but only explained about 19% of the variance, improving to 36% when considering socio-demographic factors and brain injury severity.
- Around 45% of children had lower cognitive scores at school age than they did at infancy.
- The Bayley-III tends to underestimate developmental delays that appear by school age; raising the threshold score on Bayley-III did not reliably identify many children with lower IQ.
- Children from less deprived areas had higher IQ scores, suggesting local deprivation influences cognitive outcomes.
- The study suggests that early cognitive testing alone is not enough to predict later cognitive challenges and recommends ongoing monitoring into school age for timely support.
In short, early cognitive assessments after cooling treatment for NE give some indication but miss many children who later show cognitive delays. Socioeconomic factors also play a role, and continuous follow-up is important.
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