One of the scarce comparative studies between preterm and full
term babies [8] compared the neurobehavioral profile of 20 VLBW preterminfants
(mean 1198 g) with gestational age (GA) below 32 weeks,
and 10 full term control infants. The children were assessed at term,
then at 3 and at 6 months of age (corrected age for PR children). The results
showed that VLBW PR infants differed from FT infants in all the
clusters (orientation, motor system, range of state, regulation of state
and autonomic stability) and supplementary items of the NBAS, in
which PR babies obtained significantly lower scores than FT newborns.
The group of PR infants improved only slightly over time and continued
to remain vulnerable and poorly organized at 6 months of age. They
showed self-regulation problems, which may be associated to developmental
problems later in life