Preterm growth assessment: the latest findings on age correction

Author's Department

Institute of Global Health & Human Ecology

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-02202-z

All Authors

Seham Elmrayed Susan Dai Abhay Lodha Manoj Kumar Tanis R. Fenton

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Journal of Perinatology

Publication Date

5-1-2025

doi

10.1038/s41372-024-02202-z

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of age correction up to 36 months of age for growth assessments of extremely preterm (<28 weeks) and very preterm (28 to <32 weeks) infants. Study Design: This longitudinal analysis used data from the Preterm Infant Multicenter Growth Study (2001–2014). Results: 1,416 children were included (Median gestational age = 27 weeks). Chronological age-based weight, height, and head circumference z-scores were consistently lower than those based on corrected age for all ages (0, 4, 8, 21 and 36 months) by up to −5.2 (95% confidence interval −5.4, −5.1) z-scores for length at term. Using chronological age, higher proportions of children were misclassified as having suboptimal growth (up to 72.9% misdiagnosed as stunted and 89.8% misdiagnosed as underweight at term). Conclusion: For extremely and very preterm children, age correction is required for all growth measures through 36 months of corrected age.

First Page

607

Last Page

615

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