New research published in The Lancelot Infectious Diseases shows premature infants are more likely to develop childhood infections that lead to hospitalization than babies who reach term.
In fact, not reaching the normal birth weight by even a single line difference in the weighing scale puts a baby at increased risk of childhood infections, according to the study. The same holds true for babies who nearly, but not quite, reach term.
The study was conducted by researchers in Australia who examined registry data from the Western Australia Birth Register of all live-born, non-Indigenous Australian singleton births recorded from Jan. 1, 1980, to Dec. 31, 2010.
Of the 719,311 babies included in the analysis, 365,867 infection-related hospitalizations occurred in 213,683 children, which is about 30 percent. Ultimately, babies were 12 percent more likely to be admitted to the hospital for an infection for every week they were born before term (considered the 39 or 40 week of pregnancy).
Additionally, babies were 19 percent more likely to be admitted to the hospital due to infection for every 500-gram reduction in birth weight below normal birth weight (considered 6.6 to 7.7 pounds).
"Pregnancy outcomes should be optimized to prevent infection occurring in [premature infants], especially in resource-limited settings where suboptimum intrauterine growth and moderate prematurity are common," the authors concluded.
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