The findings/conclusions of the selected studies showed that the association between preterm Fluorouracil purchase birth and poor motor development, behavior, and school performance abnormalities was demonstrated by most of the studies. Of the 47 different development outcomes evaluated, 32 (68%) found an association of preterm birth with the studied outcomes (7 articles
on motor development, 13 on behavior, and 12 on school performance). Twelve studies failed to achieve all the desired goals (3 articles on motor development, 5 on behavior, and 3 on school performance), and only 4 studies failed to show an association between preterm birth and long‐term outcomes (one article on motor development, 2 on behavior, and one on school performance) (Table 2 and Table 3). The main finding of this review was the confirmation of the long‐term vulnerability of preterm infants regarding all developmental indicators assessed (motor, behavior, and school performance). Thus, expansion of the follow‐up of preterm children is needed, as the school stage is a key moment for the child’s development, because it requires skills that have not been previously demanded, which might be impaired.1 It is important to consider that follow‐up only until to 2 years of age is insufficient for the detection of development problems such as bimanual skills, behavior, and visual‐motor
integration abnormalities. Another extremely important finding concerns the gestational age studied. Most articles focused on studying extreme prematurity, and only a small part investigated the development of moderate to late selleck kinase inhibitor preterm infants.41 It is necessary to expand the studies in order to properly assess the development of all preterm infants born at different gestational Resveratrol ages. Moderate to late preterm infants are also susceptible to developmental impairment,
and are more prevalent than extremely preterm infants.41 Regarding the methodological design of the evaluated studies, it was expected that cohorts would be the most frequent model, as they allow for the follow‐up of preterm infants. It was also to be expected that these studies would be conducted in developed countries, as they have the financial resources required for studies with long follow‐up periods. However, these are troubling data, as they suggest that, in the last ten years, no studies were conducted in developing countries such as Brazil using the quality parameters used in this study. To illustrate the situation, is noteworthy to observe that among the 77 studies initially selected for this systematic review, only two had been performed in Brazil; however, they presented a B score in the STROBE scale, and were thus removed from this review. The behavior of preterm infants is one of the outcomes of greatest interest among researches in the development area.