Visual assessment of preterm and full-term infants under the age of 12 months using the Preverbal Visual Assessment questionnaire

Abstract Background Infants develop many complex visual competences within the first 12 months of life. Premature infants are at high risk for abnormal visual and neurological development. Clinical medical history or neurologic evaluation do not give enough information on visual maturation in infants under 12 months of age. Aims To compare visual maturation between preterm and full-term infants aged under 12 months, using the Preverbal Visual Assessment questionnaire (PreViAs). Study design Retrospective cross-sectional analysis. Subjects Infants aged under 12 months, who visited our rehabilitation department for early intervention. Infants were categorized as either preterm or full-term, and assigned to one of three subgroups (0–4 months, 4–8 months, 8–12 months) according to corrected or chronological age. Outcome measures PreViAs scores. Results There were 200 preterm and 225 full-term infants analyzed. The mean global PreViAs scores among preterm infants were significantly lower than among full-term infants in all age groups (0–4 months: p = 0.033, 4–8 months: p = 0.005, and 8–12 months: p = 0.008). The mean global scores and four subdomain scores of the PreViAs were significantly lower (p  Conclusion PreViAs is a useful tool for visual assessment of infants under 12 months, especially in high-risk infants.