Results: Based on the findings, 23 infants (26.4%) had the abnormal developmental condition at the end of one year. There was a significant relationship between infants' developmental status and their age, birth height, one-year-old weight, one-year-old height, duration of ventilator use, Apgar scores at first and twentieth minutes, seizures, reflex reduction, pneumonia, breastfeeding status in the first year of life, Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), receiving occupational therapy services, and electrocardiogram (ECG) findings at one year of age. Among these variables, only breastfeeding status in the first year of life was able to predict infants' developmental status at the end of one year (OR=0.18).
Conclusion: This study showed that the risk of developmental delay in preterm infants who are breastfed in the first year of life or fed the combination of breast milk and supplemental feeding is one-fifth lower than other preterm infants who were not breastfed.
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