The Effect of Early Catch-Up Growth on Health and Well-Being in Young Adults

Abstract

Aim: To study the effect of catch-up growth in the 1st year on cognition, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), problem behavior and growth in young adults. Methods: We included individuals without severe complications and born small for gestational age (SGA; n = 228 for weight, n = 203 for length) or with a low head circumference (HC, n = 178) or a low weight adjusted for length (n = 64) in the Collaborative Project on Preterm and SGA Infants. Neonatal growth was standardized (standard deviation scores for gestational age, SDS_GA) according to GA-specific reference charts. Catch-up growth was defined as SDS_GA at 1 year of age adjusted for SDS_GA at birth. Cognition was defined by the Multicultural Capacity Test-Intermediate Level, HRQoL by the London Handicap Scale (LHS) and the Health Utility Index Mark 3 categorized into 4 levels (Multi-Attribute Utility, MAU), and problem behavior by the Young Adult Self-Report. We adjusted for potential confounders. Results: Most adults were born preterm (93.7%). A higher catch-up growth in the 1st year was associated with better cognition (B = 2.57, 95% CI 0.08-5.05 for weight), less disabilities according to the LHS (B = 2.06, 95% CI 0.35-3.78 for HC) and the MAU (OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.48-0.95 for HC) and higher final height (B = 0.33, 95% CI 0.18-0.47 for weight; B = 0.41, 95% 0.28-0.55 for length, and B = 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.33 for HC) in young adulthood. Conclusion: There are long-term benefits of catch-up growth.

Importance of Characterizing Growth Trajectories

“…One way to look at weight or length/height patterns is to subtract weight or length/height at an earlier age from a later age. In this issue, Van Dommelen et al explored the impact of gain in weight and length in the first year on cognition, health-related quality of life and problem behavior in young adults born small for gestational age [18] In this Dutch study, the exposure variable was weight or length SDS at 1 year of age adjusted for weight or length SDS at birth. They showed that a higher weight growth in the first year was associated with better cognition and fewer disabilities, but not with problem behavior.…”

“…They showed that a higher weight growth in the first year was associated with better cognition and fewer disabilities, but not with problem behavior. [18] Another way to look at weight-for-length patterns is to divide it into different age intervals of biological interest. An example of this approach is the work carried out by Belfort et al who looked in a cohort from the 1980s, at weight gain, linear growth and weight for length gain and divided this into term to 4 months and 4–12 months.…”

Appropriate-for-gestational-age infants who exhibit reduced antenatal growth velocity display postnatal catch-up growth

“…Postnatal catch-up growth is both beneficial and detrimental. While it provides early survival and neurodevelopmental advantages [9,10], there is evidence that the development of cardiometabolic disease in adulthood is related to early key growth periods. These include the period of in utero fetal growth resulting in low birth weight, and early infancy where catch-up growth occurs [11,12].…”

Multiple imputation in data that grow over time: a comparison of three strategies

“…In general, repeating previous analyses with newly imputed data may result in different parameter estimates or conclusions. We demonstrate this with an adapted example from Van Dommelen et al (2014). The researchers used the POPS data to predict the effect of early catch-up growth (developing toward the median of the growth charts in the first year of life) on health and well-being in young adulthood from the POPS data.…”