Original ArticleInfant Growth after Preterm Birth and Neurocognitive Abilities in Young Adulthood
Section snippets
Methods
The original cohort of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults, described previously24 in detail, consisted of 335 VLBW infants born consecutively between January 1978 and December 1985 and discharged alive (survival rate 70.7%) from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Children's Hospital at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland. In 2004-2005, 255 subjects residing in the greater Helsinki area were invited to the first clinical follow-up visit24 and 166 participated. Of
Results
Table II shows body size and growth in infancy. Table III shows neonatal and adult characteristics and neurocognitive test scores. Figure 1 (available at www.jpeds.com) shows the associations between growth in infancy and the individual neurocognitive test scores.
Discussion
In this cohort of 103 unimpaired VLBW individuals with high variability in early growth, faster growth from birth to term was associated with better general neurocognitive abilities, executive functioning, and visual memory in young adulthood. The benefits of rapid growth were relatively large in effect size: for each SD faster growth in weight, PIQ improved by 5.0 IQ points; for each SD faster growth in length, IQ, VIQ, and PIQ improved by 4.5, 3.4, and 5.4 IQ points, respectively; and for
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This study was part of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults, which was funded by the Suomen Akatemia, University of Helsinki, the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, Finska Läkaresällskapet, the Foundation for Pediatric Research in Finland, the Finnish Special Governmental Subsidy for Health Sciences, the Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation, the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Orion-Pharma Foundation, the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation, the Finnish National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation, the Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation, and the Pediatric Graduate School, University of Helsinki. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.