Low birth-weight has little effect on teen lungs

By Martha Kerr

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters Health) - A study presented here at CHEST 2006, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, shows that lung function is essentially unaffected in teenagers who had low birth weights.

Dr. Joje B. Undar and colleagues at the Institute of Pulmonary Medicine in Quezon City, the Philippines, conducted a study of 41 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 13 years born healthy at full-term but with birth-weights less than 5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg).

Birth-weight, present weight, body mass index, maternal smoking status, exposure to passive smoking and history of childhood illness were recorded. The children then underwent pulmonary function testing, measuring forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity.

The researchers found "a weak correlation between low birth-weight and lung function studies."

For the subjects with low birth-weights and those born with weights in the normal range, mean forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity were no different between children whose mothers smoked, who were exposed to passive smoking, or who had a history of asthma.

Only the subjects with low birth-weights plus a history of pneumonia, which occurred then they were younger than two years old had a statistically significantly lower average predicted forced vital capacity value, Undar said.