Reliability of Infant Neurological International Battery (INFANIB) Among Hospitalized Preterm Infants.

Background: NICU is a specialised intensive care unit that treats and cares for premature or critically ill newborn babies. A special category of high-risk babies consists of premature infants. Their motor growth differs from that of healthy full-term infants and their occurrence of motor disorders is greater. The outcome of neuromotor disorders can be substantially changed by treatments during the first year of life. So in order to detect these neuromotor disorder there must be a reliable screening tool present. Hence, in this study we will check reliability of INFANIB.

Purpose: Reliability of INFANIB among hospitalized preterm infants. Methodology: It will be an observational study and will be carried out in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The study will recruit preterm infants that are stable and are present without any respiratory assistive devices.

INFANIB screening tool will be performed on these infants. It has 20 items that measure the state of the infant for body tone and posture, primitive reflexes and French angles in the supine, prone, sitting, standing and suspended position upto 18 months. But we will take only preterm infants so only 14 items will be assessed and infants will be scored accordingly. The main focus will be on test- retest reliability.

Discussion: A similar research has been carried out in Iran and China, that established that reliability of INFANIB is excellent. Another research was carried out in India that stated INFANIB's reliability to be low. So this study is required to be carried out in India to know the actual results.