RT Journal
A1 Goyal NK, Fiks AG, Lorch SA
T1 PErsistence of underweight status among late preterm infants
JF Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
JO Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
YR 2012
FD May 1
VO 166
IS 5
SP 424
OP 430
DO 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1496
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1496
AB Objective 
                  To determine the association of late preterm gestation (34-36 weeks' gestation) with underweight status in infancy.Design 
                  Retrospective cohort study.Setting 
                  Thirty-one primary care sites within a hospital-owned network, from January 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009.Participants 
                  Seven thousand eight hundred sixty-six infants with gestational ages ranging from 34 to 42 weeks, followed up through the first 18 months of life. Analytic sample consisted of 7624 infants examined at 6 months of age; 7132, at 1 year; and 6957, at 18 months.Main Exposure 
                  Late preterm (34-36 weeks), early term (37-38 weeks), or full-term (39-42 weeks) gestation.Main Outcome Measures 
                  Weight-for-age z score of 2 or less at 6, 12, and 18 months.Results 
                  Compared with full-term gestation, late preterm gestation was associated with increased adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of weight-for-age z score of 2 or less at 6 months (AOR, 3.48 [95% CI, 2.17-5.72]) and 12 months (2.22 [1.07-4.61]). At 18 months, this association was not significant (AOR, 1.62 [95% CI, 0.69-3.84]). After exclusion of infants who were small for their gestational age, late prematurity was associated with underweight status when defined as a decline from birth weight of more than the 10th percentile to a weight-for-age z score of 2 or less at 6 months (AOR, 3.35 [95% CI, 1.76-6.38]) and 12 months (2.72 [1.02-7.27]) but not 18 months (1.88 [0.64-5.55]).Conclusions 
                  There is an association between late prematurity and underweight status in the first year of life. Further research is needed to determine the effect of this growth pattern on developmental outcomes and to optimize nutritional management.