Late preterm or moderate preterm babies have increased cardiometabolic risk: JAMA

Children born late or moderately preterm have a greater risk of cardiometabolic risk (CMR), says an article published in the Journal of American Medical Association.

The long-term cardiometabolic effects of late preterm delivery (34-36 weeks' gestation) remain unknown. As a result, Yulika Yoshida-Montezuma and colleagues undertook this study to see if late preterm birth and length for gestational age are linked to cardiometabolic risk in childhood.

The children in this retrospective cohort research were born in Ontario, Canada, between April 1, 2006, and September 30, 2014, and were followed up on until September 30, 2019. Data from children engaged in the TARGet Kids! primary care practice–based research networks were connected to administrative health care data at ICES. Participants were eliminated if they had conditions that hampered growth (for example, failure to thrive or cystic fibrosis), any acute or chronic diseases (other than asthma and high-functioning autism), significant developmental delay, or families that couldn't converse in English. Precipitants with late preterm delivery had gestational age as a continuous measure, and size for gestational age was calculated.

The key findings of this study were as follow:

1. The final batch includes 1742 of the 2440 eligible youngsters.

2. Overall, 87 (5.0%) infants were born moderately preterm (34 weeks' gestation), 145 (8.3%) were born late preterm (34-36 weeks' gestation), 455 (26.1%) were born early term (37-38 weeks' gestation), and 1055 (60.6%) were delivered full term (39 weeks' gestation).

3. Children born moderately and late preterm have higher CMR scores than those born full term. Each extra gestational week resulted with a 0.06 U drop in CMR.

In conclusion, late preterm and moderately preterm delivery were related with increased CMR in this cohort research. Due to the fact that the CMR score follows risk from childhood to adulthood, late preterm and moderately preterm delivery may be substantial risk factors for cardiometabolic illnesses later in life. Screening and early intervention for these youngsters might help them avoid cardiometabolic consequences.

Reference:

Yoshida-Montezuma, Y., Sivapathasundaram, B., Brown, H. K., Keown-Stoneman, C., de Souza, R. J., To, T., Borkhoff, C. M., Birken, C. S., Maguire, J. L., & Anderson, L. N. (2022). Association of Late Preterm Birth and Size for Gestational Age With Cardiometabolic Risk in Childhood. In JAMA Network Open (Vol. 5, Issue 5, p. e2214379). American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14379