8〜9歳齢極低出生体重児における注意機能

The attentional functions in very low birth weight children at 8 to 9 years of age

　学齢期の極低出生体重(very low birth weight：VLBW)児は注意に問題を示しやすいと考えられているが，わが国において客観的検査法を用いてこのことを明らかにした研究はほとんどない．そこで，本研究では注意機能に関する客観的検査法であるTest of Everyday Attention for Childrenの一部と持続遂行検査のもぐらーず課題をVLBW児と標準出生体重(normal birth weight：NBW)児に施行し，その特徴を比較した．その結果，選択的注意や注意の維持に関するいずれの項目もVLBW児はNBW児よりも成績が低かった．注意の制御に関する項目では群間で有意な差は認められなかった．また，VLBW群内では，出生時体重が750g未満のサブグループのほうが出生時体重750g以上のサブグループより選択的注意や注意の維持の課題で成績が低かった．今後の研究では高年齢児にも同様の検査を施行し，注意の発達的変化について検討する必要がある．

　Previous studies report that children who were born with very low birth weight (VLBW) have problems in attention. But in Japan, very few studies used objective tests of attention. In our study, VLBW children and normal birth weight (NBW) children were assessed using the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) and a continuous performance test (CPT) named "Mogurazu." VLBW children scored lower on both selective attention tasks and sustained attention tasks than NBW children. On the other hand, VLBW children scored similarly to NBW children on attention control tasks. Moreover, in VLBW children, the subgroup of BW＜750g children showed poorer performance on the tasks of selective attention and sustained attention than the BW≧750g subgroup. Future studies need to investigate the attentional skills in elder VLBW children and observe the developmental processes of attention.