A systematic review and meta-analysis of the nutrient content of preterm and term breast milk

BMC Pediatrics

Table 5 Meta-analysis results of preterm and term breast milk fat, lactose and oligosaccharide content over time

	Preterm			Term			Preterm & term compared
Fat (g/dL)♦
Time frame:	mean	SD	n	mean	SD	n	% difference	p-value
d 1-3	2.2	0.9	76	1.8	0.7	74	23	0.002
d 4-7	3.0	1.2	111	2.6	0.8	136	16	0.002
week 2	3.5	1.1	158	3.0	0.9	48	15	0.01
week 3-4	3.5	1.0	180	3.4	0.8	127	5	0.12
week 5-6	3.2	0.8	95	3.6	1.1	20	−11	0.07
week 7-9	3.3	0.9	120	3.4	0.8	83	−3	0.38
week 10-12	3.7	1.5	22	3.4	0.9	95	7	0.31
Fat meta-analysis was limited to 24 hour collections.
♦ References: [6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 22, 121–123, 125, 127, 142, 144, 146]
Lactose (kcal/dL)♦♦
Time frame:	mean	SD	n	mean	SD	n	% difference	p-value
d 1-3	5.1	0.7	95	5.6	0.6	59	−9	< 0.00001*
d 4-7	6.3	1.1	114	6.0	1.0	281	4	0.009
week 2	5.7	0.8	231	6.2	0.6	100	−8	< 0.00001*
week 3-4	6.0	0.5	225	6.7	0.7	193	−10	< 0.00001*
week 5-6	5.8	0.6	104	6.1	1.0	22	−6	0.06
week 7-9	6.3	0.4	123	6.5	0.5	646	−2	< 0.00001*
week 10-12	6.8	0.3	28	6.7	0.7	58	2	0.47
♦♦References: [6, 11, 12, 19, 21–23, 121, 123, 129–131, 135, 140, 143, 146, 147]
Oligosaccharides (g/dL) ♦♦♦
Time frame:	mean	SD	n	mean	SD	n	% difference	p-value
d 1-3	-	-	-	1.6	0.2	9	-	-
days 4-7	2.1	0.4	89	1.9	0.4	93	12	0.0009
week 2 (days 7–14)	2.1	0.5	89	1.9	0.4	54	7	0.004
week 3–4 (days 15–30)	1.7	0.3	152	1.6	0.3	46	12	0.27
week 5-6	-	-	-	1.4	0.3	46	-	-
week 7-9	-	-	-	1.3	0.3	46	-	-
week 10-12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
♦♦♦References: [140, 141, 143, 147].

*Statistically significant difference. In compensation for multiple comparisons, an approximate Bonferroni adjustment was made and the p-value for statistical significance was < 0.001.

ISSN: 1471-2431