A Study In Physical And Mental Development Between Different Types Of Children Born Small For Gestational Age

Small for gestational age(SGA)are defined as a birth weight below the 10 th percentile for the gestational age.Compared with children born appropriate for gestational age(AGA),SGAs have increased risks of mortality and morbidity in the neonatal period,as well as higher rates of physical and mental retardation.With the development of modern perinatal medicine,the incidence and survival rate of SGAs were significantly increased.SGAs could be divided into full-term SGA and preterm SGA according to the gestational age,or be divided into symmetric growth restriction(SGR)and asymmetric growth restriction(AGR)according to body proportion at birth.Different types of SGA might result in different growth models.In this research,our primary aim was to expore the difference in weight,height,head circumference and chest circumferenc between full-term SGA and preterm SGA,full-term symmetric growth restriction(FSGR)and full-term asymmetric growth restriction(FAGR),using a general social survey conducted in Shanghai.The WISC-CR was used to assess the intelligence quotient(IQ)of children.Our results showed up to age 3 years,SGR children failed to catch up on physical development sufficiently.The catch-up growth of preterm SGAs was better than full-term SGAs,leading to a comparable development at 1 year old.FAGR enjoyed a better catch-up growth compared with FSGR but never completly caught up.Over-weight and obesity were more serious in FSGR.Regarding the mental development,SGA children were accompanied with a lower IQ score compared with normal controls,but in rates of mental retardation and mental deficiency there were no difference.We were unable to demonstrate a difference in the risk of mental developmental delay between full-term SGA and preterm SGA,FSGR and FAGR.We demonstrated that SGA is associated with developmental delay,both in physical and mental.The physical development of preterm SGAs is the worst,but could be made up by catch-up growth.Over-weight and obesity were more serious in FSGR.Developmental delay was independent of the gestational age and the head circumference-weight ratio at birth.