Abstract

MARTELL, Miguel et al. Crecimiento y desarrollo en niños de riesgo biológico y social en una zona urbana de Montevideo. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2007, vol.78, n.3, pp.209-216. ISSN 1688-1249.

Growth and development supervision constitute a necessary step in the development of strategies in order to improve our children's health. Objective: the evaluation of growth and cognitive capacity in children at school age who have biological and social risk. Material and methods: three groups of children between 8 and 9 years old were studied. Group I: 18 preterm newborns with a birth weight less than 1.250g (biological risk); group II: 18 term newborns with adequate birth weight from homes which required nutritional help (environmental risk) and group III: 18 term newborns with adequate birth weight, attending public school and whose parents had an established job (control group). Growth was assessed through weight, height and head circumference. The Weschler scale (WISC III) was used in order to evaluate cognitive capacity. Results: the average of global intellectual coefficient (CIG) was 88,6 in group I (two patients were excluded because they had severe lesions), 87,5 in group II and 108,5 in group III. Differences between group I and II were not significant; however both of them were significatively lower than group III (p<0,001). The low cognitive capacity was associated with newborn morbidity in group I and to a low parental scholarship in group II. Growth was affected (p<0,05) for the preterm newborns group in the three parameters evaluated. Group II and III had no differences. Conclusions: children who were preterm newborns and those from a low socioeconomic level had a higher incidence of cognitive impairment.

Keywords : CHILD DEVELOPMENT;  COGNITION;  BIOLOGICAL FACTORS; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS.

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