Social status, premature birth and child development in Saxony-Anhalt. Field of action in prevention and health promotion

摘要

Background. In Germany the physical, mental and psychosocial development status of children in pre-school age is assessed within the scope of school entry (health) examinations regularly.The developmental status of pre-school aged children is a central scientific theme for some time.In accordance to current perceptions genetic, biological, psychosocial factors, the time of birth, the maternal health-related behavior, the parental educational background and the social status have ah influence on the developmental status of children. The question is posed, if and in what way disparities in the level of development exist between preterm births and normal births with different social background at the time of school entry (health) examination.Methods. Mental, social, fine- and gross sensory motor developmental delays as well as disturbance of speech in addition to the time of birth and the social status has been ex-amined at the data base of the school entry (health) examination in Saxony-Anhalt 2008-2012, Germany (N=60.452). Results. The results of the examination confirm the presumption, that preterm births have a higher risk to emerge a developmental delay. Moreover the examination shows that preterm birth children with lower social status show a much higher risk to emerge every examined developmental indicator than preterm births with middle or high social status. Boys are affected more often than girls. Remarkable is, that even the children with lower social status and normal birth time show a higher risk to emerge a developmental delay than preterm birth children with high social status.