Premature infants often undergo postnatal growth failure and show an altered body composition (BC) at termequivalent age (TEA) with lower fat-free mass (FFM) and increased fat mass (FM) than infants born at term.
Body composition is a sensitive marker of infants’ intra- and extrauterine growth quality that can influence short- and long-term outcomes; including retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), metabolic health, cardiovascular and neurodevelopmental outcomes.
A new study on the Neonatology Journal shows the relationship netween body composition at birth and in early childhood with risk for cognitive deficits.