An anthropometric study of prematurely born children at the age of 5 years.

A considerable number of growth studies on prematurely born children have been carried out since 1919 when Ylppo (1920) published the first major report on this subject (Capper, 1928; Hess, Mohr and Bartelme, 1934: von Sydow, 1936; Illingworth, 1939; Brander, 1941; Levine and Gordon, 1942; Asher, 1946; Drillien, 1948; Alm, 1953; Douglas and Mogford, 1953). The earlier results are unreliable and contradictory, but later workers agree in general that premature infants remain a little below average in height and weight. With a steady increase in survival rate the characteristics of this group of children are likely to alter. In addition, racial, economic and other factors have an important bearing on growth pattern. Therefore as there are no detailed anthropometric data on Scottish children born prematurely the present investigation was undertaken.