Prevalence and patterns of executive function, adaptive function, and behavioral outcomes in preschool and school age children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

BACKGROUND

Executive function, adaptive function, and behavioral outcomes in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) survivors have not been well studied.

AIM: To evaluate executive and neurobehavioral dysfunction in preschool and early school-aged children with CDH.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SUBJECTS: All eligible CDH survivors ages 3 to 7 years enrolled in our follow-up program between February 2020 and February 2021.

OUTCOME MEASURES: The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, 2nd Edition (ABAS-II), and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were used to assess functional and behavioral outcomes. Summary scores were compared to standard population norms.

RESULTS

A total of 100 patients were enrolled during the study period. Of those, 73 parents completed at least one of the questionnaires, resulting in completion of the BRIEF, ABAS-II, and CBCL for 63, 68, and 63 patients, respectively. Preschool children had normal executive function (BRIEF-P) while global executive composite (P = 0.012) and the emotional regulation index (P = 0.010) for school age patients (BRIEF-2) were worse. CDH survivors had favorable adaptive functioning (ABAS-II). Mean CBCL scores for preschool attention problems (P = 0.018), school age attention problems (P = 0.001), and attention deficits hyperactivity problems (P = 0.027) were significantly worse. Prematurity, surrogate markers of disease severity, non-white race, and public insurance status were associated with worse neurobehavioral dysfunction in bivariable analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of preschool and school age CDH survivors have age-appropriate executive, adaptive and behavioral functioning. CDH survivors, however, have lower executive function and attention scores compared with the general population.