Functional Assessment Of Children Born Prematurely Using The Pediatric Evaluation Of Disability Inventory

The objective of the study was to compare the functional assessment of children of age 5-7.5 years who were born preterm with the children born at term using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI). This was a cross sectional study based on a survey conducted in schools and the community. The validated PEDI questionnaire was administered on 255 children of age 5-7.5 years born at term and 52 children of the same age born preterm. Both the groups were compared using the Independent Sample't' test and Pearson's chi square test for the Functional Skill Scale (FSS) and Caregiver Assistance Scale (CAS) of PEDI respectively. The results showed that there was significant difference in the scores of the FSS and CAS between the 2 groups where the normal children achieved higher scores as compared to the children born preterm. We concluded that Children of age 5-7.5 years who were born preterm were significantly low in the self care and social function skills and were more dependent on their caregiver when compared to their peers who were born at term.