Effect of COVID-19 on neuromotor development of infants: A case control study

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the neuromotor development of infants are not clear yet. Based on the hypothesis that COVID-19 may cause a delay in infant neuromotor development, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the neuromotor development of 6-18 month-old infants hospitalized for COVID-19 and healthy children. All of the children were assessed at one point by the pediatric neurologist and pediatric physiotherapist. The Denver II developmental screening test (DDST), Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE) test, and Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) were used to determine the neurodevelopmental status of the infants. SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive 27 children (14 boys, 13 girls) and 29 healthy children (15 boys, 14 girls) were included in the study. The clinical findings of most of the patients were mild. The mean age of the patients was 11.4±4.2 months, and the mean length of hospital stay was 4.6±2.4 days. The most common symptom was fever in 19 patients (70%), followed by cough (25.9%), diarrhea (25.9%), vomiting (18.5%), loss of appetite (14.8%), myalgia (11.1%), dyspnea (3.7%), and sore throat (3.7%). No significant feature was detected in laboratory and imaging findings. The DDST was abnormal in 3 COVID+ patients: one was a 6-month-old patient with a birth history of asphyxia, and the others were age-retarded in language and social development with no chronic disease. There was no significant difference in the HINE and AIMS tests. In small-scale and short-term follow-up, we found that COVID-19 did not inhibit the neuromotor development of infants except for slight retardation in language and social.