Effectiveness of oral motor intervention in promoting neurobehavioral development of premature infants:a Meta-analysis

CHEN Xia; WU Nana; ZHOU Hong; WANG Yuan; DING Liwen; FU Jie

doi:10.12102/j.issn.2095-8668.2024.13.002

Abstract：Objective:To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of oral motor intervention in promoting the neurobehavioral development of premature infants.Methods:The randomized controlled trials(RCT)on the effects of oral motor intervention on the neurobehavioral development of premature infants were retrieved from PubMed,EMbase,Web of Science,the Cochrane Library,CNKI,WanFang Database,Chinese Medical Journal Full Text Database,and VIP.The time limit was from the establishment of the database to April 14,2023.According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the literature,two researchers independently screened the literature,extracted data,and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies.Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.Results:A total of 7 RCTs were included,involving 746 premature infants.Meta-analysis results showed that the intervention group's Neonates Behavioral Nerve Assessment(NBNA)score was(MD=2.32,95％CI 1.13-3.51,P＜0.001).The intervention group's score on the Psychomotor Development Index(PDI)was(MD=6.44,95％CI 1.62-11.26,P=0.009),which was higher than that of the control group.At 3 months of corrected gestational age and 6 months of corrected gestational age,the proportion of normal nervous system development in the intervention group was higher than that of the control group(corrected to 3 months of age(OR=2.17,95％CI 1.38-3.41,P＜0.001);corrected to 6 months of age(OR=2.80,95％CI 1.69-4.64),P＜0.001).Conclusions:The existing evidence shows that oral motor intervention can promote the neurobehavioral development of premature infants and improve short-term developmental outcomes effectively.