O-39 Growth patterns in premature and term infants - a casecontrol study

Methods: This case-control study was conducted in the UHWI’s Prematurity and Child Welfare clinics, where twoyear-old preterm (cases) and term (controls) infants and their primary caregivers were recruited. Target sample size was 128 (64 in each group). Anthropometric data were collected from each child’s health passport, a questionnaire on child feeding was administered, and the child’s blood pressure was measured. Data on preterm infants were also collected from electronic health records due to a paucity of participants available prospectively. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine, means, proportions, and standard deviations. The Student’s t-test was used to compare continuous variables and the Chi-square test for categorical variables.

Results: Data were obtained for 57 controls and 44 cases (18 prospective and 26 electronic health records). At two years old, preterm girls and boys were shorter than their term peers (p=0.012). Preterm boys had weights comparable with term boys by 12 months (p=0.186), while preterm girls continued to weigh less than term girls up to 24 months old (p=0.039). The highest prevalence of excess weight at two years old was noted in preterm boys, who were also the most likely to have been prematurely introduced to complementary feeds. Caregiver knowledge and attitudes towards child feeding were similar between cases and controls. No statistically significant difference between systolic (p=0.33) or diastolic (p=0.64) blood pressures of cases and controls was found, but clinical significance is possible, as 25% of preterm infants required referral for further follow-up, versus 12% of term infants.

Conclusion: Preterm infants are at risk of reduced linear growth in the first two years of life and are more likely to require blood pressure follow-up.