Bibian van der Voorn

131 EARLY LIFE GROWTH ON CORTISOL AFTER PREMATURITY After adjustment for confounders, similar results were found, with the exception of pregnancy induced hypertensive diseases, which resulted in a loss of significance (data not shown). After exclusion of visually impaired STEP-1 subjects (n=2) , similar results were found (data not shown). TABLE 4. Longitudinal associations between birth weight SDS, SGA-status, growth from birth to 6 mo. corrected age, and serum cortisol n Crude β (95% CI) p value Birth weight SDS, continuous 152 17.33 (3.69 to 30.96) 0.01 Birth weight SDS , dichotomous ≤ – 2SDS vs. > – 2SDS 11 vs. 141 –50.69 (–94.27 to –7.11) 0.02 SGA SGA vs. AGA 35 vs. 109 –29.70 (–60.58 to 1.19) 0.06 Early postnatal growth AGA GR+ vs. AGA GR − 8 vs. 96 –55.10 (–106.02 to –4.17) 0.03 SGA CUG − vs. AGA GR − 14 vs. 96 –61.91 (–104.73 to –19.10) 0.01 SGA CUG+ vs. AGA GR − 20 vs. 96 –13.26 (–49.62 to 23.10) 0.48 Abbreviations: AGA, appropriate for gestational age (birth weight and birth length >–2SDS); CI, confidence interval; CUG, catch-up growth; GR, growth restriction; SDS, standard deviation score; SGA, small for gestational age (birth weight and/or birth length ≤–2SDS) SALIVARY CORTISOL Table 5 shows salivary cortisol data at age 8 y; mean per sampling moment, CAR, AUC i , AUC i /h and maximum level. Two outliers with levels at awakening that were 10 times higher than 15 min. after awakening, or levels in the evening that were 10 times higher than the cohort mean, were excluded from the analysis. Linear regression analyses showed no association between birth weight SDS, SGA-status or growth from birth to 6 mo. corrected age, and either of the salivary cortisol parameters (data not shown). TABLE 5. Salivary cortisol (nmol/L), mean at every sampling moment and CAR, AUC i and maximal level n Bedtime Awakening + 15 min Lunch CAR AUC i AUC i /h Max. Birth weight SDS , continuous 75 1.0 ± 0.1 4.9 ± 2.9 6.5 ± 3.2 2.3 ± 1.8 1.5 ± 2.8 38.2 ± 22.6 2.5 ± 1.5 6.9 ± 3.1 SGA AGA 57 1.0 ± 0.2 4.9 ± 3.0 6.6 ± 3.4 2.3 ± 1.9 1.7 ± 2.9 38.8 ± 24.2 2.5 ± 1.5 7.1 ± 3.3 SGA 15 1.0 ± 0.0 4.6 ± 2.2 6.0 ± 2.6 2.1 ± 1.1 1.3 ± 2.4 34.7 ± 16.1 2.2 ± 1.1 6.3 ± 2.4 Early postnatal growth AGA GR– 51 1.0 ± 0.2 5.0 ± 3.1 6.4 ± 3.5 2.3 ± 2.0 1.4 ± 2.7 38.5 ± 25.4 3.4 ± 1.6 7.0 ± 3.4 AGA GR+ 6 1.0 ± 0.0 4.1 ± 1.9 7.9 ± 2.7 2.3 ±1.5 3.8 ± 3.7 41.6 ± 6.5 2.6 ± 0.3 8.1 ± 2.5 SGA CUG– 5 1.0 ± 0.0 3.9 ± 1.5 6.0 ± 1.7 2.1 ± 1.0 2.0 ± 2.0 30.2 ± 11.4 1.1 ± 0.8 6.0 ± 1.7 SGA CUG+ 10 1.0 ± 0.0 4.9 ± 2.5 6.0 ± 3.0 2.1 ± 1.2 0.9 ± 2.7 37.5 ± 18.7 2.4 ± 1.2 6.6 ± 2.9 Data are expressed as mean ± SD. Abbreviations: AGA, appropriate for gestational age (birth weight and birth length > - 2SDS); AUC i (/h), area under the curve with respect to the increase (per hour); CAR, cortisol awakening response; CUG, catch-up growth; GR, growth restriction; max, maximal salivary cortisol level of the 4 sampling moments; SGA, small for gestational age (birth weight and/or birth length ≤–2SDS).