INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF POSTNATAL GROWTH OF LOW BIRTHWEIGHT INFANTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEVELOPING AND AFFLUENT COUNTRIES

Hofvander Y. (International Child Health Unit, Department of Paediatrics, University of Uppsala, Sweden). International comparisons of postnatal growth of low birth-weight infants with special reference to differences between developing and affluent countries. Acta Paediatr Scand, Suppl. 296:14, 1982. A large majority of low birthweight infants are born in developing countries where however, only few follow-up studies have been made. However, there are clear indications that in general the AGA infants catch-up better than the SGA of the same weight. A particularly poor catch-up growth is shown by full-term SGA indicating that if a fetal growth retardations is diagnosed, delivery should be induced prematurely. Social and environmental factors are important for the optimal growth postnatally and particularly so if the environmental conditions are adverse.