What Is Normal Growth? Principles, Practicalities and Pitfalls of Growth Assessments in Infants and Children.

Background: Growth assessments are a pillar of public health surveillance, individual health screening, and clinical care. Normal growth is defined differently for individuals versus populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards were developed to describe the pattern of growth in healthy children without socioeconomic limitations whose mothers planned to breastfeed.

Scoping review of exposure questionnaires and surveys in interstitial lung disease.

Background: Many interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) have clear causal relationships with environmental and occupational exposures. Exposure identification can assist with diagnosis, understanding disease pathogenesis, prognostication and prevention of disease progression and occurrence in others at risk. Despite the importance of exposure identification in ILD, there is no standardised assessment approach.

Growth patterns by birth size of preterm children born at 24-29 gestational weeks for the first 3 years.

Background: Concerns are prevalent about preterm infant long-term growth regarding plotting low on growth charts at discharge, stunting, underweight, high body fat and subsequent cardiometabolic morbidities.

Objectives: To examine (a) longitudinal growth patterns of extremely and very preterm infants to 3 years corrected age (CA) (outcome), categorised by their birthweight for gestational age: small, appropriate and large for gestational age (SGA, AGA and LGA, respectively) (exposure); and (b) the ability of growth faltering (<-2 z-scores) to predict suboptimal cognitive scores at 3 years CA.

Methods: Post-discharge head, length, weight and weight-4-length growth patterns of the PreM Growth cohort study infants born <30 weeks and < 1500 g, who had dietitian and multi-disciplinary support before and after discharge, were plotted against the World Health Organization growth standard.

Expected and Desirable Preterm and Small Infant Growth Patterns.

Adequate nutrition is necessary for achieving optimal growth and neurodevelopment. Growth is a natural and expected process that happens concomitantly with rapid advancements in neurodevelopment. Serial weight, length, and head circumference growth measures are essential for monitoring development, although identifying pathological deviations from normal growth can pose challenges.

Does the evidence support in utero influences on later health and disease? A systematic review of highly cited Barker studies on developmental origins.

The developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis proposes that early exposure to adverse conditions during fetal development and early life have strong detrimental consequences on long-term health and susceptibility to chronic diseases. We conducted a systematic review to critically appraise Barker's highest cited publications using the risk-of-bias assessment tool (ROBINS-I) and investigate effects of overadjustment by later body weight. Our findings revealed that all included studies displayed high risks of bias, with particular concerns regarding confounding (8/8), selection of reported results (8/8), classification of exposure (7/8), selection of participants (5/8) and high rates of missing data (ranged from 15 to 87%).

Small for gestational age preterm infants and later adiposity and height: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Overweight and obesity and their consequent morbidities are important worldwide health problems. Some research suggests excess adiposity origins may begin in fetal life, but unknown is whether this applies to infants born preterm.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the association between small for gestational age (SGA) birth and later adiposity and height among those born preterm.

Dosages of Nutrient Supplements and Potential Long-Term Toxicity in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Micronutrient Study.

We read with interest the article by Johnstone et al. reporting their vitamin-mineral randomized trial that found that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) showed global benefit over placebo by blinded clinician rating, but not by parent-report CASI-5 composite rating in a population with ADHD and irritability. Because some of the mineral dosing was in potentially toxic ranges, we sought to examine the trial findings.

Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes of Adult Interstitial Lung Abnormalities: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Incidental parenchymal abnormalities detected on chest computed tomography scans are termed interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs). ILAs may represent early interstitial lung disease (ILD) and are associated with an increased risk of progressive fibrosis and mortality. The prevalence of ILAs is unknown, with heterogeneity across study populations.

Small for date preterm infants and risk of higher blood pressure in later life: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Historical reports suggest that infants born small for gestational age (SGA) are at increased risk for high blood pressure (BP) at older ages after adjustment for later age body size. Such adjustment may be inappropriate since adiposity is a known cause of cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Objectives: To assess the association between SGA births and later BP among preterm births, considering potential background confounders and over-adjustment for later body size.

Obesity and mortality among endometrial cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Excess body fat is a major risk factor for endometrial cancer incidence, but its impact on recurrence and survival remains unclear. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the association between excess body fat with recurrence, cancer-specific, and all-cause mortality among endometrial cancer survivors. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases up to July 2021.

Critical examination of relationships between early growth and childhood overweight in extremely preterm infants.

Objectives: To identify the prevalence and risk factors for childhood overweight and obesity (OWO) at 3-year corrected age in children born <1500 g <29 weeks gestation.

Study Design: A multicentre retrospective cohort study for preterm infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units between 2001 and 2014.

Results: Data were available for 911 (89.

The Importance of Reporting Energy Values of Human Milk as Metabolizable Energy.

Nutrition science has a convention to report metabolizable energy instead of gross energy. Metabolizable energy at 4 kilocalories per gram for protein and carbohydrate, 9 kcal per gram for fat (kilojoules: 17 and 37, respectively) represents the food energy available for metabolism. However, this convention to use metabolizable energy has not been uniformly applied to human milk.

Are small-for-gestational-age preterm infants at increased risk of overweight? Statistical pitfalls in overadjusting for body size measures.

Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of adjusting for body measures on the association between small for gestational age (SGA) and overweight at 3 years.

Study Design: Data were obtained from the Preterm Infant Multicenter Growth Study (n = 1089). Logistic regression was used, to adjust for confounders with additional adjustments separately for weight and height at 21 months.

"Extrauterine growth restriction" and "postnatal growth failure" are misnomers for preterm infants.

Preterm infants are increasingly diagnosed as having "extrauterine growth restriction" (EUGR) or "postnatal growth failure" (PGF). Usually EUGR/PGF is diagnosed when weight is <10th percentile at either discharge or 36-40 weeks postmenstrual age. The reasons why the phrases EUGR/PGF are unhelpful include, they: (i) are not predictive of adverse outcome; (ii) are based only on weight without any consideration of head or length growth, proportionality, body composition, or genetic potential; (iii) ignore normal postnatal weight loss; (iv) are usually assessed prior to growth slowing of the reference fetus, around 36-40 weeks, and (v) are usually based on an arbitrary statistical growth percentile cut-off.

Preconceptional and gestational weight trajectories and risk of delivering a small-for-gestational-age baby in rural Gambia.

Maternal nutritional status is a key determinant of small for gestational age (SGA), but some knowledge gaps remain, particularly regarding the role of the energy balance entering pregnancy. We investigated how preconceptional and gestational weight trajectories (summarized by individual-level traits) are associated with SGA risk in rural Gambia. The sample comprised 670 women in a trial with serial weight data (7310 observations) that were available before and during pregnancy.