Table 7.

Follow-up data of infants exposed to postnatal antibiotics according to prophylactic use of Lactobacillus acidophilus/Bifidobacterium infantis probiotics.

Clinical characteristics	Postnatal exposure to antibiotics Without probiotics	Postnatal exposure to antibiotics with probiotics	p	Ante- and postnatal exposure to antibiotics without probiotics	Ante- and postnatal exposure to antibiotics with probiotics	p
No. of infants	19	46		29	61
Gestational age (weeks)	27.2 (2.3)	27.9 (2.1)	0.9*	27.2 (2.1)	26.9 (2.1)	0.8*
Body weight (g) at birth	787 (258)	926 (272)	<0.001*	976 (262)	928 (290)	0.1*
Body weight (kg) at 5yr-F/U z-score	15.8 (2.0); −1.46/−1.62 (0.84)	18.2 (4.2) −0.31/−0.67 (1.74)	0.008* 0.003*	17.6 (2.4) −0.54/−0.66 (1.01)	17.8 (3.1) −0.55/−0.59 (1.3)	1.0* 0.9*
Head circumference (cm) at 5 yr F/U, z-score	48.9 (1.4) 1.68/−1.75 (1.19)	49.9 (1.8) −0.83/−0.54 (1.32)	0.01* 0.01*	49.9 (2.5) −1.32/−1.04 (2.07)	50.4 (1.9) −0.72/−0.77 (1.42)	0.3* 0.3*
Body length (cm) at 5 yr F/U z-score	107.0 (6.0) −0.91/−1.1 (1.27)	110.0 (6.0) −0.2/−0.71 (1.25)	0.06* 0.07*	109.7 (4.3) −0.31/−0.11 (0.83)	110.1 (5.3) −0.23/−0.21 (1.06)	0.8* 0.9*
Episodes with upper respiratory tract infection at 2 yr F/U, no. of infants [mean (SD) GA, weeks)] mean number of episodes (SD)	134 [28.7 (2.5)] 3.1 (2.6)	318 [28.4 (2.3)] 2.6 (2.1)	0.01*	138 [28.2 (2.5)] 2.8 (2.3)	406 [27.6 (2.3)] 2.8 (2.3)	0.8*
Atopic dermatitis at 2 yr F/U (%)	9.2	13.6	0.1	12.7	13.8	0.3

Legend: Continuous variables are shown as mean (SD); z-scores are shown as mean/median (SD). Categorical variables are shown as percent. p-values were derived from Fisher’s exact test or Mann-Whitney-U test if indicated (*), SGA, small for gestational age (<10th percentile of birth weight adjusted to gestational age). Growth velocity and weight gain were calculated by differences between parameters at birth and respective measures at discharge/number of days (duration of stay).