Somatic development of children born with very low birth weight (< 1500 g)and/or born very premature (< 32 weeks of gestation)

Objective: Concerning the long-term somatic development of children born wi th very low birth weight and/or born very premature,there are varying and s ometimes contradictory statements. A follow-up study was carried out on pre mature-born children from Thuringia and Saxonia at pre-school and early sch ool age in order to investigate the long-term somatic development of these children. Anthropological parameters were examined and compared with the da ta of a reference group. Methods: Of 75 boys and 53 girls aged 5 to 9.5 years with a birth weight of less than 1500 g and/or a gestational age of less than 32 weeks the follow ing anthropological characteristics were analysed after transformation into standard deviation scores (SDS): body height, body weight, body mass index , metric index and head circumference. Reference Values were obtained from the Jena longitudinal study. Using multiple linear regression analysis,the influence of selected biological and socio-economic variables on the postna tal body height development was analysed. Results: At the age of 5 to 9.5 years the average SOS-values of body height , body weight, body mass index (only boys) and head circumference of premat ure-barn children are significantly below reference values. There is a tend ency to greater SDS-deviations in boys. The multiple linear regression mode l presented here shows that birth weight, gestational age, parental body he ight and rank in the birth order significantly influence the postnatal deve lopment of the body height. Conclusions: It has been shown that on average premature-born children have not caught up on their retardation by pre-school and beginning-of-school a ge. The individual development of these children varies considerably due to constitutional, neonatal and social factors.