Validity of the General Movement Optimality List in Infants Born Preterm

Purpose: To examine concurrent and predictive validity of the optimality list "Detailed Assessment of General Movements (GMs) During Preterm and Term Age." Methods: Video clips of general movements were analyzed for 20 infants born preterm without severe brain lesions. Concurrent validity of the optimality list compared with the General Movement Assessment (GMA) was examined. The General Movement Optimality Scores (GMOSs) between infants with normal and poor repertoire GMA were examined. Estimates of diagnostic accuracy were calculated. Results: The GMOS correlated with the GMA and differed between infants with normal and poor repertoire GMA. The area under the curve was below 0.53 with respect to normal or abnormal general movements at 3 months' corrected age. Conclusions: Concurrent validity of the optimality list was moderate to high compared with the GMA, but its predictive validity for general movements at 3 months' corrected age was low.