Study finds fewer fractures in pre-term and low birthweight infants than normal newborns

Pre-term and low birthweight infants have fewer fractures in childhood than full-term and normal-weight newborns, based on a brand new a study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. The register-based cohort study from Finland utilized the nationwide Medical Birth Register, the Care Register for Health Care, and data provided by Statistics Finland. The evaluation included data on a million children and nearly 100,000 fractures.

Children born very pre-term or with extremely low birthweight are known to be prone to metabolic bone disease of prematurity, because the fetal accumulation of minerals occurs mainly within the third trimester of pregnancy. Some earlier smaller studies have also reported an increased risk of fractures in childhood in children born pre-term. Moreover, an earlier study from Finland found that pre-term infants proceed to have lower bone mineral density even in maturity.

With this in mind, we got down to examine whether pre-term and low birthweight babies have an increased risk of fractures of their childhood, compared to full-term and normal birthweight babies.”

Ilari Kuitunen, Adjunct Professor, University of Eastern Finland

The researchers found that pre-term and low birthweight infants had significantly fewer fractures in childhood than other newborns. The difference was particularly evident in children born before the thirty second week of pregnancy, who had 23% fewer fractures than in children born full-term. There have been also fewer fractures within the group whose birthweight was lower than 2,500 g, and particularly within the group whose birthweight was lower than 1,000 g.

“It will possibly be concluded that the danger of fractures in childhood is explained by aspects apart from the effect of being pre-term on bones. Nevertheless, we all know that pre-term children are less more likely to take part in sports, they usually have less risk-taking behavior whilst adults than full-term children,” Kuitunen says.

In response to the researchers, further research is required on whether fetal growth disorder, i.e., abnormal growth in relation to weeks of pregnancy, is related to fractures in early childhood, as this was not addressed in the current study.

The study was published in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. The research group also included Professor Reijo Sund and Adjunct Professor Ulla Sankilampi.