Maternal HIV infection, drug use, and growth of uninfected children in their first 3 years

Objective-To determine the separate effects of maternal HIV infection and drug use during pregnancy on growth of uninfected children in their first 3 years. Design-Retrospective analysis of measurements from health visitor records made during routine child health surveillance at 6 weeks, 10 months, and 3 years of age. Multilevel analysis allowed for between-infant variation in fitted growth Lines, and adjustment for other factors. Growth was described in terms of an intercept (z score at term) and growth slopes (change in z score per year) up to, and from, 3 months. Subjects-290 case babies delivered in Edinburgh hospitals to women who reported injection drug use by either themselves or their HIV infected partner, and 186 community controls. A total of 131 (45%) of the case babies were born to women who used drugs, predominantly opiates, during pregnancy and 93 (32%) to HN infected women. The eight infected children were excluded from analysis. Main outcome measures-Age and sex standardised z scores for height, weight, and body mass index.