Analysis of Trend and Associated Factors of Neuropsychological Development of Infants and Toddlers Based on Longitudinal Data

• Main Authors: Deng Chen (Author), Yunzhe Huang (Author), Andrew Swain (Author), Xiaoguang Yang (Author), Jinming Yu (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2021-09-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.3390/children8100866; 2227-9067
• Keywords: trend; associated factors; neuropsychological development; infants and toddlers; longitudinal data; Pediatrics; RJ1-570
• Source: Children, Vol 8, Iss 10, p 866 (2021)

Objective: To explore the trend and associated factors of neuropsychological development of infants and toddlers in China. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted among 619 infants and toddlers (2914 person-times) aged 0 to 36 months from different provinces or cities in China from January 2013 to December 2019. Results: The development age of each area increased with the extension of follow-up time, but this upward trend slowed down with physiological age at first measurement increasing. Among a low age group and each area, most of the development qualification rates in different follow-up periods were higher than that in the baseline (<i>p</i> < 0.05); however, many of them were not higher than that in the baseline among the medium or high age group (<i>p</i> > 0.05). For the areas of gross motor and self-care, the growth of qualification rate with the extension of follow-up was not obvious in the medium and high age group (both <i>p</i> trend > 0.05). Some impact factors of development in all areas were identified. Conclusions: The neuropsychological development delay of various areas of infants and toddlers, especially that of gross motor and self-care, should be paid early (within 1 years old) and constant attention. The impact of gender and maternal age on the development of young children has been further confirmed in the present study.