In a meta-analysis – a study that pools data from multiple studies – Posted on January 26thDanish epidemiologist Johan Vinther and colleagues compared the medical records of 250,000 people born between 1985 and 2017. These records included pregnancy data and weight or height follow-ups, which were spread out over several years.
BMI Obviously, BMI is not the only possible indicator for comparing the growth of these two groups, but it is a relevant approximation, the authors justify.
It appears from these data that although babies born before the 37th week of gestation had a higher risk of having a higher childhood BMI than others, this difference diminished once they reached adolescence.
We’re talking average here, and that only applies to rich countries.
It should be noted that knowledge of the long-term effects of premature birth is still very incomplete. One reason is that until the 1970s, the chances of survival for a baby born before the 37th week of pregnancy were very slim. The other is that it is difficult, sometimes difficult, to follow thousands of premature infants for several years, even into adulthood, in order to subject them to regular learning and behavior tests, with all the mystery this places on them and their parents. in 2015, Journal report nature He further emphasized how “we are just beginning to understand the effects of preterm birth”.
Photo: Shiraz Sadiq/Flickr/CC
