Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Many premature infants experience significant early growth failure in the weeks following delivery. Subsequent catch-up growth has traditionally been assumed to have occurred by early childhood. Most studies have focused on cohorts defined by birth weight, for example, <1500 g resulting in disproportionate numbers of small for gestational age (SGA) infants as opposed to those small solely as a consequence of prematurity. Few studies have examined growth compared to local term control populations.

Aim: To determine whether preterm appropriate weight for gestational age (AGA) children reach their expected adult height when compared to term controls.

Methodology: This UK based prospective longitudinal cohort study, recruited 204 preterm children born at a tertiary neonatal unit during 1994 and a group of 50 matched controls. Growth parameters have been assessed annually until the completion of growth.

Results: The final height SDS of children born prematurely (n=80) was not significantly different to term controls (n=30) (0.45 term vs 0.10 preterm, P=0.156). However, catch-up growth continued throughout the whole of childhood. There was a non-significant trend towards the most preterm children, born at <29 weeks gestation, having a lower final height SDS (mean final height SDS −0.35, P=0.075). Children born both preterm and SGA (n=7) were however, significantly shorter than their peers and their parents regardless of the degree of prematurity (mean final height SDS −0.98 (SGA) vs 0.18 (AGA), P=0.01).

Conclusion: The preterm AGA population achieve a comparable adult height to children born at term, however, catch-up growth continues for much longer than traditionally thought.