Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 157, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 610-616.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
Adults Born at Very Low Birth Weight Exercise Less than Their Peers Born at Term

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.04.002Get rights and content

Objective

To study the effects of very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 g) birth on physical activity, an important protective and modifiable factor.

Study design

VLBW participants (n = 163) with no major disability and 188 individuals born at term (mean age, 22.3 years; range, 18.5–27.1) completed a standardized questionnaire of physical activity.

Results

VLBW participants reported less leisure-time conditioning physical activity. They were 1.61-fold more likely to “not exercise much,” 1.61-fold more likely to exercise infrequently (once a week or less), 2.75-fold more likely to exercise with low intensity (walking), and 3.11-fold more likely to have short exercise sessions (<30 minutes). The differences were present even in subjects with no history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia or asthma and were only slightly attenuated when adjusted for height, parental education, lean body mass, and percent body fat.

Conclusions

Unimpaired adults who were VLBW exercise less during their leisure time than adults born at term. Promoting physical activity may be particularly important in the VLBW population to counteract the risks of chronic disease in adult life.

Section snippets

Methods

This study is a part of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults. The study cohort has been described in detail.1, 17 In brief, the original VLBW cohort consisted of 335 consecutive VLBW infants who were born between January 1978 and December 1985 and were discharged alive from the neonatal intensive care unit of Children's Hospital at Helsinki University Central Hospital, serving the province of Uusimaa, Finland. We selected a comparison group from all consecutive births at their

Results

Clinical characteristics relevant to this study are shown in Table I. More detailed characteristics of the cohort have been described.17

Discussion

We found that unimpaired young adults born at VLBW are physically more inactive during leisure time than their peers born at term. This difference is characterized by a lower frequency, intensity, and average session duration of leisure-time conditioning physical activity, and it is not explained by potential confounding factors, including socioeconomic status, maternal smoking during pregnancy, current smoking of the subject, or a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia or asthma. Although the

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    Financial support and conflict of interest information available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix).

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