Increase in obesity rate; rates of asthma and chronic illness stable from age 8 to 14 years
TUESDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) -- The overall rate of chronic conditions and asthma in children born weighing less than 1 kg (extremely low-birth-weight [ELBW] children) remains stable between the ages of 8 and 14 years, but obesity increases compared to normal-birth-weight (NBW) children; so that, at age 14, the rates of chronic conditions are higher in ELBW children, but asthma and obesity are similar, according to a study published in the July 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Maureen Hack, M.B., Ch.B., from the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and colleagues examined the changes in rates of chronic conditions, asthma, and obesity in 181 ELBW children, from age 8 to 14 years, and 115 matched NBW controls born between 1992 and 1995.
The investigators found that, between the age of 8 and 14 years, the overall rates of chronic conditions in the two groups did not change significantly. After adjusting for confounders, at the age of 14, ELBW children had a higher rate of chronic conditions than NBW children (74 versus 47 percent). The rates of asthma requiring medication did not change from age 8 to 14 for ELBW children, but increased significantly for NBW children. For ELBW children, the mean z scores for body mass index and rates of obesity increased significantly from age 8 to 14 years. At age 14, the rates of obesity and asthma were not significantly different in the two groups.
"Among ELBW children, rates of overall chronic conditions and asthma did not change between the ages of 8 and 14 years but the rate of obesity increased," the authors write.
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