Neonatal Morbidities and Postnatal Growth Failure in very Low Birth Weight, very Preterm Infants
2Women and Children’s Health Research Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, ישראל
3Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, ישראל
Objective: Preterm and very‐low‐birthweight infants often fail to gain weight according to intrauterine growth expectations. We aimed to assess postnatal growth in infants with and without major neonatal morbidities.
Methods: This study is based on analysis of data collected by the Israel Neonatal Network on VLBW infants (≤1500 g) born in Israel from 2009-2018. Postnatal growth was assessed in two five-year epochs: 2009-2013 (n=4,583) and 2014-2018 (n=4,558). Outcome was considered as severe, mild and no PNGF. Multinomial logistic regression analyses with the generalized estimating equation approach (GEE) were used.
Results: A total of 9,141 infants composed the study population. Of these, 2,089 had at least one of the major morbidities: BPD, NEC, PDA, or IVH, and 7,052 infants had none of these morbidities. Postnatal growth was assessed in two five-year epochs: 2009-2013 and 2014-2018. Among the infants with no neonatal morbidities, 2.1% had severe PNGF, 23.7% mild PNGF and 74.2% had no PNGF, as compared to 13.6%, 43.9% and 42.5% respectively in the “any morbidity” subgroup (p<0.0001).
Conclusion: Despite some improvement in postnatal growth, among VLBW infants with major neonatal morbidities it remains a challenging issue. Along with efforts to decrease morbidity, a more personalized nutritional plan may be required in infants with major morbidities, given their high risk for diminished growth and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes