Haemophilia Infants Gross Motor Development: Comparisons With Full-Term and Preterm Infants of the Same Nationality.

Introduction: Infants with haemophilia, due to parental overprotection, have difficulty developing their full motor repertoire of typical gross motor development. It is of great clinical importance to evaluate the motor development of these infants with a standardized assessment tool.

Aim: To study the gross motor development in infants with haemophilia, using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) and compare it with full-term (FT) and preterm infants (PT).

Methods: Fifteen FT infants with severe or moderate haemophilia A and B were assessed with the AIMS (Group D). The scale is already standardized in FT Greek infants (Group A). Two groups of PT infants were also included, with gestational age >32 weeks and ≤32 weeks, Groups B and C, respectively. The mean Z-scores were tested with the ANOVA procedure, followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction.

Results: The four groups had significantly different mean Z-scores. Infants in Group A had a mean Z-score of 0 ± 1. Infants in Group B lagged significantly behind by one standard deviation. Preterm infants in Group C had a mean Z-score significantly lower than Group B. Infants in Group D had a mean Z-score significantly lower than Group C.

Conclusions: Motor development in infants with haemophilia significantly lags behind both FT and PT infants. Differences in AIMS scores could be attributed to the reduction of movement activity, since infants with haemophilia are often deprived of certain positions, being held and carried in the parents' arms, as well as from free play time on the floor.