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Updated: Dec 15, 2025
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Serial assessment of fat and fat-free mass accretion in very preterm infants: a randomized trial
Ariel A Salas1, Maggie L Jerome2, Paula Chandler-Laney2
1Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35249, USA. asalas@peds.uab.edu.
Insights
Monitoring infant body composition in preterm infants did not alter nutritional practices or growth outcomes. Serial assessments showed consistent fat accretion, but clinician access to this data did not impact care.
Area of Science:
- Neonatalogy
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Body Composition Analysis
Background:
- Dietary interventions in early infancy are crucial for very preterm infants.
- Monitoring fat and fat-free mass accretion can inform clinical practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if providing clinicians with serial infant body composition reports influences nutritional practices and growth in very preterm infants.
- To assess the impact of body composition data on clinical decision-making.
Main Methods:
- Randomized controlled trial involving preterm infants.
- Infants were assigned to receive (intervention) or not receive (control) body composition reports.
- Body composition was assessed serially using air-displacement plethysmography.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant differences in percent body fat (%BF) at 36 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) or 3 months corrected age (CA) between groups.
- Consistent increments in %BF were observed in both intervention and control groups.
- Feeding practices and anthropometric measurements did not differ between groups.
Conclusions:
- Serial body composition assessments in preterm infants demonstrate consistent fat accretion.
- Providing clinicians with body composition data did not significantly influence nutritional management or infant growth.
- Further research may be needed to optimize the use of body composition data in clinical settings.
Background:
Clinicians could modify dietary interventions during early infancy by monitoring fat and fat-free mass accretion in very preterm infants.
Methods:
Preterm infants were randomly assigned to either having reports on infant body composition available to the clinicians caring for them (intervention group) or not having reports available (control group). All infants underwent serial assessments of body composition by air-displacement plethysmography before 32 weeks of postmenstrual age (PMA) and at 36 weeks PMA. The primary outcome was percent body fat (%BF) at 3 months of corrected age (CA).
Results:
Fifty infants were randomized (median gestational age: 30 weeks; mean ± SD birth weight: 1387 ± 283 g). The mean %BF increased from 7 ± 4 before 32 weeks PMA to 20 ± 5 at 3 months CA. The differences in mean %BF between the intervention group and the control group were not statistically significant at 36 weeks PMA (14.5 vs. 13.6) or 3 months CA (20.8 vs. 19.4). Feeding practices and anthropometric measurements during hospitalization did not differ between groups.
Conclusions:
Serial assessments of body composition in both intervention and control groups showed consistent increments in %BF. However, providing this information to clinicians did not influence nutritional practices or growth.
Impact:
Serial assessments of body composition in preterm infants at 32 and 36 weeks postmenstrual age show consistent increments in % body fat up to 3 months of corrected age. However, providing this information to the clinician did not influence nutritional practices or growth.
