Search Results
Title: Choosing a Measure of Birth Size in Longitudinal Studies: How Do Various Measures Compare?
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Salsberry, Pamela J. Reagan, Patricia Benton Pajer, Kathleen Gardner, William Fang, Muriel Z. Currie, Lisa |
|
Choosing a Measure of Birth Size in Longitudinal Studies: How Do Various Measures Compare? Presented: Dublin, Ireland, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) International Conference, October 2015 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies Keyword(s): Adolescent Health; Age at Menarche/First Menstruation; Birthweight; Body Mass Index (BMI); Health Factors; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Methods/Methodology Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. As the fetal origins hypothesis has gained support over the past two decades, an increasing number of studies have used birth size as a predictor for later life health. Birth size is thought to matter because it is a marker of adverse intrauterine conditions that results in various structural, physiological and metabolic changes in the fetus. Empirical tests of the fetal origins hypothesis have generally provided support, but not all studies have found a relationship. This may be related to methodological differences across studies, with wide variation in how birth size is measured. For example, birth size has been captured using birth weight as a continuous measure as well as in categories of low and high weight; others capture gestational age or birth length as part of the measure. Little justification is generally provided regarding the choice of measure. But are these measures the same? Clinical research in maternal-fetal medicine indicates that different birth size measures provide different information about fetal development, thus suggesting that these measures may not be interchangeable. The purpose of this study is: i) to investigate how different birth size indexes predict young adult health outcomes, including age at menarche and BMI, outcomes that are related to adult health; and ii) whether different indexes identify the same group of high risk infants. The US based NLSY79 mother, child and young adult files are used in these analyses. Sample inclusion requires birth data and young adult outcomes on the participants. Regression analyses will be completed. Results from these analyses will help inform researchers about how various measures of birth size compare, providing empirical results to inform decisions regarding the choice of birth size measure in future studies. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Salsberry, Pamela J., Patricia Benton Reagan, Kathleen Pajer, William Gardner, Muriel Z. Fang and Lisa Currie. "Choosing a Measure of Birth Size in Longitudinal Studies: How Do Various Measures Compare?" Presented: Dublin, Ireland, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) International Conference, October 2015. |