THE EFFECTS OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT, GESTATIONAL AGE AND PNEUMONIA ON LUNG FUNCTION IN CHILDHOOD

Tan Xingyu, He Quanying, Ding Dongjie

Department of Respiratory Medicine, People's Hospital, Peking University, Beijing 100044, China

Objective: To evaluate the effects of low birth weight, gestational age and pneumonia during early childhood on lung function in later childhood. Methods: Height, body weight and lung function are measured in a cohort of 35 children with low birth weight (aged 6 ~ 9 yr) and 35 healthy controls with normal birth weight matched for gender and age. At the same time, we inquire their gestational age, pneumonia and passive smoking history. The correlation analysis is used to analyze the relationship between lung function in these children and birth weight, gestational age and pneumonia. Results: FVC, FEV₁, FEV₁% Pre, FEV_0.75, MMEF, ₇₅, ₅₀, ₅₀% Pre, ₂₅, ₂₅% Pre in children with low birth weight are significantly lower than those in children with normal birth weight (P＜0.05). The lung function statistically positively correlates with birth weight (r=0.245 ~ 0.365, P＜0.05), but not with gestational age (P＞0.05). There are significant negative correlation between FVC, FEV₁ and pneumonia in boys (r=-0.469 and r=-0.502，P＜0.05), but not in girls (P＞0.05). Conclusions: Low birth weight is positively correlated with most lung function parameters in childhood. And the frequency of pneumonia is negatively correlated with FVC, FEV₁ only in boys.

Key words: Low birth weight; Gestational age; Pneumonia;Lung function; childhood

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