Effects of rapid growth on weight and blood pressure in small and appropriate for gestational age infants during preschool period / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate whether rapid weight gain in the first year of life was associated with incidence of overweight and higher blood pressure in small for gestational age (SGA) and appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants at preschool age.@*Methods@#From March 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, a total of 12 150 children aged six years from 50 municipal kindergartens in Tianjin were enrolled in a cross-sectional survey. Their body weight, height and blood pressure were measured. Body length and weight at birth and one year of age were retrospectively collected. Rapid catch-up growth was defined as the difference of weight-for-height Z-score between one year old and at birth >0.67. The relationship between rapid growth with overweight and blood pressure in SGA and AGA infants at preschool age were analyzed using t test, analysis of variance and Chi-square test.@*Results@#At the age of six, children with rapid growth had a higher rate of overweight [28.6% (2 095/7 328) vs 17.5% (842/4 822), t=196.457, P<0.001], and higher systolic blood pressure [(99.4±10.0) vs (98.4±10.1) mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa), t=29.260, P<0.001] and diastolic blood pressure [(60.0±7.7) vs (59.4±7.8) mmHg, t=16.079, P<0.001] compared with children without rapid growth. SGA children with rapid growth had higher body weight [(21.5±4.4) vs (19.2±3.7) kg, t=3.747, P<0.001], height [(117.4±5.5) vs (114.8±5.4) cm, t=3.557, P<0.001] and systolic blood pressure [(98.4±9.9) vs (95.6±11.2) mmHg, t=2.080, P=0.038] compared with those without. Comparing to AGA children, SGA children had lower overweight rate [17.5% (144/824) vs 24.7% (2 793/11 326), t=21.630, P<0.001] and systolic blood pressure [(98.2±10.0) vs (99.0±10.1) mmHg, t=2.431, P=0.015]. Among the AGA children with rapid growth, 29.8% (1 958/6 564) were overweight.@*Conclusions@#Rapid growth in infancy is associated with overweight and higher systolic blood pressure at preschool age. A proper weight gain should be emphasized for both SGA and AGA infants.