The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Generating longitudinal growth charts from preterm infants fed to current recommendations

Generating longitudinal growth charts from preterm infants fed to current recommendations
Generating longitudinal growth charts from preterm infants fed to current recommendations
Objective: to use repeated measurements of weight, length and head circumference to generate growth centile charts reflecting real-world growth of a population of very preterm infants with a well-described nutritional intake close to current recommendations.

Design: infants born before 30 weeks gestational age (GA) were recruited. Infants received nutrition according to an integrated care pathway, with nutrient intake recorded daily, weight recorded twice-weekly and length and head circumference weekly. The LMS method was used to construct growth centile charts between 24 and 36 weeks corrected GA for each parameter.

Setting: a single tertiary neonatal unit in England.

Patients: 212 infants (124 male) (median GA at birth: 27.3 weeks, median birth weight: 900 g).

Results: median daily energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat intake were within 3% of published recommendations. The total number of measurements recorded was 5944 (3431 for weight, 1227 for length and 1286 for head circumference). Centile charts were formed for each parameter. Data for male and female infants demonstrated similar patterns of growth and were pooled for LMS analysis. A web application was created and published (bit.ly/sotongrowth) to allow infants to be plotted on these charts with changes in SD score of measurements reported and graphically illustrated.

Conclusions: these charts reflect growth in a real-world cohort of preterm infants whose nutrient intakes are close to current recommendations. This work demonstrates the feasibility of forming growth charts from serial measurements of growing preterm infants fed according to current recommendations which will aid clinicians in setting a benchmark for achievable early growth.
neonatology, nutrition
1359-2998
646-651
Young, Aneurin
457b536d-6015-4855-8e4c-0a665a9a2bb1
Andrews, Edward T.
dbfdffa9-9e8d-4696-9ff1-1aa03aff3a5b
Ashton, James John
03369017-99b5-40ae-9a43-14c98516f37d
Pearson, Freya
1d52a3d9-8d84-481a-8274-81cbdccbc40a
Beattie, R. Mark
9a66af0b-f81c-485c-b01d-519403f0038a
Johnson, Mark John
ce07b5dd-b12b-47df-a5df-cd3b9447c9ed
Young, Aneurin
457b536d-6015-4855-8e4c-0a665a9a2bb1
Andrews, Edward T.
dbfdffa9-9e8d-4696-9ff1-1aa03aff3a5b
Ashton, James John
03369017-99b5-40ae-9a43-14c98516f37d
Pearson, Freya
1d52a3d9-8d84-481a-8274-81cbdccbc40a
Beattie, R. Mark
9a66af0b-f81c-485c-b01d-519403f0038a
Johnson, Mark John
ce07b5dd-b12b-47df-a5df-cd3b9447c9ed

Young, Aneurin, Andrews, Edward T., Ashton, James John, Pearson, Freya, Beattie, R. Mark and Johnson, Mark John (2020) Generating longitudinal growth charts from preterm infants fed to current recommendations. Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 105 (6), 646-651. (doi:10.1136/archdischild-2019-318404).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: to use repeated measurements of weight, length and head circumference to generate growth centile charts reflecting real-world growth of a population of very preterm infants with a well-described nutritional intake close to current recommendations.

Design: infants born before 30 weeks gestational age (GA) were recruited. Infants received nutrition according to an integrated care pathway, with nutrient intake recorded daily, weight recorded twice-weekly and length and head circumference weekly. The LMS method was used to construct growth centile charts between 24 and 36 weeks corrected GA for each parameter.

Setting: a single tertiary neonatal unit in England.

Patients: 212 infants (124 male) (median GA at birth: 27.3 weeks, median birth weight: 900 g).

Results: median daily energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat intake were within 3% of published recommendations. The total number of measurements recorded was 5944 (3431 for weight, 1227 for length and 1286 for head circumference). Centile charts were formed for each parameter. Data for male and female infants demonstrated similar patterns of growth and were pooled for LMS analysis. A web application was created and published (bit.ly/sotongrowth) to allow infants to be plotted on these charts with changes in SD score of measurements reported and graphically illustrated.

Conclusions: these charts reflect growth in a real-world cohort of preterm infants whose nutrient intakes are close to current recommendations. This work demonstrates the feasibility of forming growth charts from serial measurements of growing preterm infants fed according to current recommendations which will aid clinicians in setting a benchmark for achievable early growth.

Text
accepted_manuscript - Accepted Manuscript
Download (646kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 30 March 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 May 2020
Published date: 21 October 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: Funding AY, MJJ and RMB are supported by the National Institute for Health Research through the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre. JJA is funded by an Action Medical Research training fellowship and by an ESPEN personal fellowship. Competing interests None declared. Patient consent for publication Not required.
Keywords: neonatology, nutrition

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 447490
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/447490
ISSN: 1359-2998
PURE UUID: d148ed34-9e2e-4233-abc9-2b5afe088376
ORCID for Aneurin Young: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3549-3813
ORCID for James John Ashton: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0348-8198
ORCID for Mark John Johnson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1829-9912

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Mar 2021 17:32
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:17

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Aneurin Young ORCID iD
Author: Edward T. Andrews
Author: Freya Pearson
Author: R. Mark Beattie
Author: Mark John Johnson ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×