Table 5.
Studies of human milk (HM) feeding and developmental outcome in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants: meeting criteria for methodological quality
| Reference | Pinelli et al. [29] | Furman et al. [30] | Tanaka et al. [31] | Horwood et al. [32] | Smith et al. [33] | Johnson et al. [34] | Vohr et al. [35] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As primary outcome of original study* | - | + | - | - | - | - | - |
| VLBW only | + | + | + | + | + | +† | +† |
| A priori power calculation | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Baseline adjustment for SGA | - | - | - | + | - | - | - |
| Postnatal complication | - | + | - | + | - | + | + |
| Maternal intelligence | +/− | +/− | +/− | +/− | +/− | +/− | +/− |
| Social class or Socioeconomic status | + | - | - | +/− | +/− | + | +/− |
| Child rearing environment | +/− | +/− | - | +/− | + | - | +/− |
| Observers blinded to feeding protocol | + | + | - | - | - | + | - |
| Effect size after adjustment | + | + | NA | +‡ | +‡ | +‡ | +‡ |
| Human milk definition | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Human milk duration | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Human milk fortification | + | + | - | - | - | - | - |
| Human milk feeding data source | + | - | - | + | + | - | + |
| Formula type | + | + | - | - | - | - | + |
SGA = Small for gestational age, NA = not available.
+Met methodological criterion.
-Did not meet methodological criterion; or not stated or not specified in the publication.
+/−Use surrogates such as income for socioeconomic status, maternal education for maternal intelligence, marital status or one or two parent family for child rearing environment.
*All studies were observational and most were secondary analysis of study cohort from other studies.
†Only children with birth weights <1000 g.
‡Limited consistency of neurodevelopment outcome. Human milk showed variable advantage in some test scores [32–35].