Abstract:

Objective To investigate the risk factors of the occurrence of small for gestational age (SGA) in late preterm infants. Methods The clinical data of late preterm infants with gestational age of 34~36⁺⁶ weeks born in Xiamen Maternal and Child Health Hospital and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit from January 2019 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the gestational age and birth weight, the subjects were divided into SGA group and appropriate gestational age (AGA) group. The propensity score matching function of SPSS software was used to match the two groups with the 1:1 nearest neighbor matching method to obtain the between-group correlation. The clinical features between the two groups were compared. The influencing factors of SGA occurrence in late preterm infants were analyzed by multivariate conditional logistics regression. Results There were 239 patients in SGA group and 239 patients in AGA group, and there were no significant differences in gender and gestational age between the two groups (P>0.05). The proportion of prenatal glucocorticoid therapy, the incidence of gestational hypertension and twin pregnancy in SGA group was higher than that in AGA group, and the incidence of premature rupture of membranes (≥18h) in SGA group was lower than that in AGA group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The results of multivariate conditional logistics regression analysis showed that prenatal glucocorticoid therapy, gestational hypertension and twin pregnancy were independent risk factors for SGA occurrence in late preterm infants (P<0.05). Conclusions Reduction of prenatal glucocorticoid treatment, prevention of hypertension during pregnancy, and avoidance of twin pregnancy are the main measures to reduce SGA in late prematureinfants.

Key words: late preterm infant, small for gestational age, risk factor