Associated Factors for Accelerated Growth in Childhood: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Several studies have shown that accelerated growth in the postnatal period is critical for the development of chronic diseases. The term catch-up has been used for the accelerated growth of children who have suffered some sort of restriction of nutrition or oxygen supply. However, accelerated growth has been observed among children who have an appropriate birth weight for their gestational age (AGA) and with no apparent morbidity. Therefore, this systematic review was carried out on the associated factors of accelerated growth, or catch-up, using the Medline/Pubmed database. Only cohort studies written in Portuguese, English or Spanish, with children between zero and 12 years old who presented accelerated growth or catch-up as the outcome were included. Out of the 2,155 articles found, 9 were selected. There is no uniformity in the operational definition of accelerated growth, or in the concept of catch-up. According to this review, accelerated growth is associated with primiparity, maternal smoking during pregnancy, lower birth weight, and early weaning. The main limitations in the available literature are the high number of follow-up losses and the lack of control for confounding factors. The determinants of accelerated growth still need to be studied further, especially among AGA children.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, furans, and biphenyls (PCDDs/PCDFs and PCBs) in breast milk and early childhood growth and IGF1

“…Primiparity has consistently been reported to be associated with rapid infant growth (Ong et al 2002, Karaolis-Danckert et al 2009, Chrestani et al 2013). We did not adjust for parity in our analysis, as parity is an important predictor of chemical levels as the maternal level of persistent chemicals declines with parity and breast-feeding.…”

“…Catch-up growth was defined as a positive change in SDS (DSDS) R0.67 S.D. for weight and height respectively (Ong et al 2000, Chrestani et al 2013, and catch-down growth was defined as DSDS %K0.67 S.D. (Ong et al 2004).…”

“…Maternal smoking in pregnancy, early weaning, and primiparity are factors known so far to predict rapid early childhood growth (Chrestani et al 2013). Other environmental factors may also play a role, but to our knowledge, no studies have so far investigated the role of background environmental exposure to chemicals such as dioxins and dioxin-like chemicals on early growth patterns.…”

<b>Nutritional status of children under five years living in area of social vulnerability of Campina Grande, Paraíba State

“…Current analysis revealed a strong association between birth weight and the anthropometric nutritional status of children, with similar results in previous studies, such as studies based on municipal or state population data (Jesus, Castelão, Vieira, Gomes, & Vieira, 2014;Figueiroa et al, 2012;Rissin et al, 2011) and in populations marked by social inequity Lang et al, 2011;Silveira et al, 2010). This association, verified for several anthropometric indexes (Figueiroa et al, 2012;Figueroa Pedraza et al, 2013;Horta et al, 2013;Jesus et al, 2014;Lang et al, 2011;Rissin et al, 2011;Silveira et al, 2010), shows two perspectives: i) children with low birth weight, regardless of compensatory growth in the first three months of life, continue to have weigh rates below those of children with adequate birth weight, contributing to increased vulnerability to infectious processes and other negative postnatal factors, which are added to the prenatal growth programming (Motta, Silva, Araújo, Lira, & Lima, 2005); ii) low birth weight may result in adaptation mechanisms such as catch-up growth and hormonal disorders that might predispose the child to the development of overweight / obesity (Chrestani, Santos, Horta, Dumith, & Dode, 2013;Motta el al., 2005;Rossi & Vasconcelos, 2010).…”

Relationship between prenatal growth, postnatal growth and childhood obesity: a review

“…Prenatal growth has been shown to be inversely associated with postnatal growth, with babies born smaller experiencing higher growth during infancy compared with larger babies. 21,24,25 It has been suggested that babies who experience growth restriction in utero and therefore are born small compensate by growing rapidly in early infancy, and that this mismatch between prenatal and postnatal growth may elevate risks of obesity and other chronic diseases. [26][27][28] If this is the case, there could be trade-offs between the short-term benefits of 'catch-up' growth and chronic disease risk in the longer-term.…”