Growth patterns by birth size of preterm children born at 24–29 gestational weeks for the first 3 years

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background: Concerns are prevalent about preterm infant long‐term growth regarding plotting low on growth charts at discharge, stunting, underweight, high body fat and subsequent cardiometabolic morbidities.Objectives: To examine (a) longitudinal growth patterns of extremely and very preterm infants to 3 years corrected age (CA) (outcome), categorised by their birthweight for gestational age: small, appropriate and large for gestational age (SGA, AGA and LGA, respectively) (exposure); and (b) the ability of growth faltering (<−2 z‐scores) to predict suboptimal cognitive scores at 3 years CA.Methods: Post‐discharge head, length, weight and weight‐4‐length growth patterns of the PreM Growth cohort study infants born − 2 z‐scores improved with age. The highest proportions <−2 z‐scores for length (24.2%) and weight (24.0%) were at 36 gestational weeks. The proportion with small heads was low by 0 months CA (1.8%). By 3 years CA, only a few children plotted lower than −2 z‐scores for length, weight‐4‐length and weight ( + 2 z‐scores were rare (2.1% at 3 years CA). Those born SGA had higher proportions with shorter heights (16.7% vs. 5.2%) and lower weights (27.8% vs. 3.5%) at 3 years CA compared to those born AGA. The ability of growth faltering to predict cognitive scores was limited (AUROC 0.42, 95% CI 0.39, 0.45 to 0.52, 95% CI 0.41, 0.63).Conclusions: Although children born <30 weeks gestation without major neonatal morbidities plot low on growth charts at 36 weeks CA most catch up to growth chart curves by 3 years CA.

This publication has 53 references indexed in Scilit: