Table 5 Postnatal antibiotics and effect probiotics.

From: Lactobacillus acidophilus/Bifidobacterium infantis probiotics are associated with increased growth of VLBWI among those exposed to antibiotics

Clinical characteristics

Postnatal antibiotics only without probiotics

Postnatal antibiotics only with probiotics

p

Ante - and postnatal antibiotics without probiotics

Ante - and postnatal antibiotics with probiotics

p

No. of infants

900

2272

 

918

2953

 

Gestational age (weeks)

29.0 (2.4)

28.4 (2.2)

<0.001

28.2 (2.5)

27.6 (2.3)

<0.001

Body weight at birth (g) z-score

1070 (306) −0.53/−0.57 (0.85)

988 (293) −0.52/−0.5, (0.89)

<0.001 0.7

1090 (299) −0.07/−0.04, (0.74)

1014 (290) −0.06/−0.02, (0.75)

<0.001 0.7

Head circumference at birth (cm) z-score

26.0 (2.6) −0.52/−0.5, (0.79)

25.4 (2.4) −0.54/−0.5, (0.8)

<0.001 0.7

25.7 (2.6) −0.29/−0.26, (0.76)

25.1 (2.6) −0.28/−0.25, (0.74)

<0.001 0.6

Body length at birth (cm) z-score

36.7 (3.9) −0.38/−0.33, (0.85)

35.7 (3.8) −0.4/−0.33, (0.87)

<0.001 0.9

36.6 (3.9) −0.07/0 (0.73)

35.8 (3.7) −0.04/−0.03, (0.72)

<0.001 0.4

Duration of stay (days)

72 (33)

75 (33)

<0.001

77 (38)

79 (35)

0.003

Weight gain (g/d),

22.7 (5.4)

22.9 (4.5)

0.9

22.7 (5.9)

22.8 (4.4)

0.7

Growth velocity head (mm/d)

1.01 (0.2)

1.05 (0.3)

<0.001

1.02 (0.3)

1.04 (0.3)

0.03

Growth velocity length (mm/d)

1.35 (0.4)

1.44 (0.4)

<0.001

1.38 (0.5)

1.42 (0.4)

0.001

  1. 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).
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