As an ancillary study to the NICHD multisite Maternal Lifestyles (MLS) study, we administered the Posture and Fine Motor Assessment of Infants(PFMAI) to eight month old infants at the Providence site. The 32 item PFMAI measures quality of overall fine and gross motor skill acquisition in summary scores: the quality of reaching and grasping of different objects, and mobility/stability in prone/supine, sitting, quadruped and standing. It was validated in a normative mid-western sample of preterm and term infants. The purpose of this study was to define the impact of prenatal cocaine/opiate exposure on gross and fine motor development. The sample included 29 infants exposed to cocaine/opiates in utero (EXP) and 38 comparison infants not exposed to cocaine/opiates in utero (COMP). The two groups were similar in birth weight and gender. Background exposure to alcohol, marijuana or tobacco occurred in both groups. T-test results showed no significant differences between EXP and COMP on fine motor or gross motor overall or subscale scores. The fine motor (FM) and gross motor (GM) summary scores were similar between the MLS EXP and COMP groups and the Ohio sample as shown below.

EXP infants had a lower score than COMP (T = 2.12, P<.04) on a single item, leg involvement in sitting stability, which may indicate a subtle difference in typical posture and tone in the EXP group. Co-variance analysis for birthweight showed no statistically significant effects. Our findings support the current results in the literature that the effects of prenatal cocaine/opiate exposure may be subtle and should be viewed against a backdrop of alcohol, marijuana and tobacco exposure that occurred in both groups. Table

Table 1 No caption available.
Full size table

Log in or create a free account to read this content

Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com

Access through your institution

or

Sign in or create an account
Continue with Google
Continue with ORCiD