Abstract: Objective To compare predicting validity of general movements (GMs) assessment for neurodevelopment outcome of high-risk premature infants in different gestational age. Methods 180 participants were divided into group A (28 to 31+6 gestational weeks), group B (32 to 33+6 gestational weeks) and group C (34 to 36+6 gestational weeks) according to gestational age, and evaluated by GMs assessments in the stage of writhing-movement and fidgety-movement respectively. They were evaluated with GMs assessment and Gesell developmental scale, and cerebral palsy was diagnosed clinically. Results 133 infants were normal and 47 infants with developmental delay, in which 10 were with cerebral palsy. The sensitivity was 40.4%, the specificity was 90.2%, the positive predictive value was 59.4%, the negative predictive value was 81.1% in the stage of writhing- movement; and it was 27.7% , 99.2% , 92.9% and 79.5% in the stage of fidgety-movement, respectively. There was no significantly difference in the detection rate among different age groups (P=0.610, P=0.765, P= 0.290). Conclusion The absent fidgety-movement (F-) is the highest, and cramped-synchronized (CS) is the secondly to predict the motor developmental outcome. There was no difference of GMs assessment to detect the neurodevelopmental outcome in premature infants of 28 to 36+6 gestational weeks.

Key words: general movement, assessment, gestational age, premature infants, high-risk, predictive validity