Gender differences in outcome after neonatal intensive care: speech and language skills are less influenced in boys than in girls at 6.5 years.

AIM

To study language development at age 6.5 y in 230 children who had required neonatal intensive care (NIC) and 71 full-term neonatally healthy control children, all born in 1986-1989, with a focus on comparison between genders.

METHODS

Eight aspects of spontaneous speech, 3 fine motor functions, 10 linguistic areas, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and digit recall (ITPA) were assessed.

RESULTS

Achievements for gender and gestational age groups were analysed (group I, 23-31 wk; subgroup IA, 23-27 wk; IB, 28-31 wk; group II, 32-36 wk; group III, >36 wk), with children with congenital malformations as a separate group. As a group, at 6.5 y NIC girls had more developed spontaneous speech than NIC boys, and performed better than NIC boys in some linguistic areas. NIC girls of group I had lower results than control girls in spontaneous speech aspects such as speech motor function, interaction and motivation, and in many areas of linguistic skills. In contrast, NIC boys of group I had higher results than control boys in auditory memory, and only regarding information and speech motor function in spontaneous speech were their results lower. Analysis of results of matched pairs of group I NIC girls versus control girls and group I NIC boys versus control boys revealed even more marked differences between NIC girls and their matched controls than between NIC boys and their matched controls.

CONCLUSION

Language development in extremely or very preterm NIC boys seems to be less influenced than that in NIC girls by the need for and administration of NIC. The neonatal factors associated with low scores in girls are different from those in boys.