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Growth to early adulthood following extremely preterm birth: the EPICure study

Yanyan Ni1, Joanne Beckmann2, Rashmi Gandhi3

  • 1Institute for Women's Health, University College London, London, UK yanyan.ni.13@ucl.ac.uk.

Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition
|January 8, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Extremely preterm individuals remain shorter with smaller head circumferences into adulthood. Despite weight catch-up, leading to elevated BMI, their growth trajectories differ significantly from term-born peers.

Area of Science:

  • Human Growth and Development
  • Perinatal Medicine
  • Pediatric Endocrinology

Background:

  • Extremely preterm (EP) birth before 26 weeks gestation poses risks for long-term health.
  • Understanding growth trajectories in EP individuals is crucial for monitoring and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare growth patterns from early childhood to adulthood in extremely preterm individuals versus term-born controls.
  • To identify factors influencing growth in extremely preterm survivors.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal analysis of growth data (height, weight, head circumference, BMI) from the EPICure study.
  • Multilevel modeling was used to track growth trajectories from 2.5 to 19 years.
  • Comparison between 315 extremely preterm and 160 term-born participants.

Main Results:

  • At 19 years, EP individuals were significantly shorter, lighter, and had smaller head circumferences than controls.
  • EP participants exhibited faster weight and head circumference growth rates but no height catch-up.
  • Elevated BMI in EP individuals at 19 years was observed, with similar proportions of obesity as controls.

Conclusions:

  • Extremely preterm individuals experience persistent differences in physical growth compared to term-born peers into adulthood.
  • While weight catch-up occurs, leading to higher BMI, key growth parameters remain distinct.
  • Birth characteristics and neonatal feeding practices influence childhood growth in this cohort.
Abstract

Keywords:
cohort studiesextremely pretermgrowth trajectories

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