Table 2. Anthropometry of the VLBW (n = 41) and term AGA (n = 64) children.

	VLBW	Term AGA	VLBW	Term AGA	VLBW	Term AGA	Differencea	p-valuea	Interaction with timeb
	At 3 months (corrected) age		At 1 year (corrected) age		At 2 years (corrected) age
Weight (kg)	5.6 ± 0.9	6.2 ± 0.6	9.1 ± 1.2	10.1 ± 1.0	11.5 ± 1.3	13.0 ± 1.5	-1.3 (-1.9 to -0.8)	<0.001	negative
Weight SDS	-0.6 ± 1.4	0.5 ± 0.7	-0.9 ± 1.1	0.1 ± 0.8	-0.9 ± 1.0	0.1 ± 0.9	-1.0 (-1.3 to -0.7)	<0.001	no
Length (cm)	58.2 ± 2.7	61.4 ± 2.0	74.5 ± 2.9	76.5 ± 2.4	86.0 ± 3.7	87.7 ± 3.3	- 3.7 (-6.1 to -1.5)	0.001	positive
Length SDS	-1.1 ± 1.1	0.4 ± 0.7	-0.6 ± 1.0	0.1 ± 0.8	-0.7 ± 1.1	-0.3 ± 0.9	-0.9 (-1.2 to -0.5)	<0.001	positive
Head circumference (cm)	40.4 ± 1.5	41.3 ± 1.3	46.1 ± 1.6	47.2 ± 1.5	48.3 ± 1.7	49.4 ± 1.5	-1.3 (-2.1 to -0.6)	<0.001	no
Head circumference SDS	-0.1 ± 1.0	0.6 ± 0.8	-0.4 ± 0.9	0.4 ± 0.9	-0.2 ± 0.9	0.4 ± 0.9	-0.7 (-1.0 to -0.4)	<0.001	no
BMI (kg/m2)	16.3 ± 1.8	16.4 ± 1.2	16.3 ± 1.5	17.2 ± 1.3	15.5 ± 1.5	16.9 ± 1.1	-0.6 (-1.1 to -0.2)	0.004	negative
BMI SDS	0.1 ± 1.3	0.3 ± 0.9	-0.7 ± 1.1	0.1 ± 0.9	-0.7 ± 1.2	0.5 ± 0.8	-0.6 (-1.0 to -0.3)	<0.001	negative
Total body fat (kg)	1.0 ± 0.5	1.3 ± 0.3	1.6 ± 0.6	2.3 ± 0.7	1.8 ± 0.6	2.6 ± 1.0	-0.5 (-0.7 to -0.4)	<0.001	negative
TBF/Weight	0.18 ± 0.06	0.20 ± 0.04	0.18 ± 0.06	0.22 ± 0.05	0.16 ± 0.05	0.20 ± 0.06	-0.03 (-0.05 to -0.015)	<0.001	no

Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. TBF: total body fat.

^aDifferences and p-values were based on the comparison between VLBW children and term AGA children on average over time adjusted for gender.

^bNegative interaction indicates that the differences between the groups became stronger over time; positive interaction indicates that the differences between the groups became less strong over time.