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The association between antenatal corticosteroids exposure and postnatal growth in infants born between 23 and 29 weeks of gestation

Journal of Perinatology volume 44, pages 561–567 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To assess the association between antenatal corticosteroids exposure and postnatal growth in infants born at 23–29 weeks’ gestation.

Study design

This retrospective study used data from the Pediatrix Clinical Data Warehouse. Maternal-infant dyads from 2018 to 2020 were included. Inverse propensity weighting (IPW) was applied to balance pre-treatment confounders. Primary outcomes included postnatal weight, length, and head circumference growth trajectory percentiles.

Result

The unadjusted cohort consisted of 11,912 dyads. After IPW adjustment, there were 23,231 dyads. Exposed infants showed higher postnatal trajectory percentiles for weight (by 3.4%), length (by 1.8%), and head circumference (by 2.5%) when compared to non-exposed infants. The positive association between antenatal corticosteroids and postnatal growth was only observed in infants not exposed to preeclampsia/eclampsia/HELLP syndrome or without fetal growth restriction.

Conclusion

Antenatal corticosteroids exposure is associated with better postnatal growth. The study is limited by its retrospective nature.

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Fig. 1: Study Cohort Breakdown.
Fig. 2: The impact of antenatal corticosteroids exposure on postnatal weight, length, and head circumference trajectory percentiles.

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Data availability

Data can be requested by contacting Dr. Reese Clark or by completing the online request form at https://mednax2ndhipaaaccount-gajdh.formstack.com/forms/research_application_complete.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, Riverside, CA, USA

    Fu-Sheng Chou

  2. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Fu-Sheng Chou

  3. Center for Research, Education, Quality and Safety, Pediatrix® Medical Group, Sunrise, FL, USA

    Reese H. Clark

  4. Division of Health Services and Outcomes Research, Children’s Mercy Research Institute, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Hung-Wen Yeh

  5. Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Hung-Wen Yeh

Authors
  1. Fu-Sheng Chou
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  2. Reese H. Clark
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  3. Hung-Wen Yeh
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Contributions

FC conceptualized the study, performed data analysis, and drafted the initial and revised manuscript. RHC performed initial data extraction and clean-up, and critically reviewed the manuscript. HY supervised data analysis and critically reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fu-Sheng Chou.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was determined by the Institutional Review Board of Kaiser Permanente Southern California to be non-human subject research due to the dataset’s de-identified nature, and the informed consent requirement was accordingly exempted.

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Chou, FS., Clark, R.H. & Yeh, HW. The association between antenatal corticosteroids exposure and postnatal growth in infants born between 23 and 29 weeks of gestation. J Perinatol 44, 561–567 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-01871-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-01871-0

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