title: [Procedure used to follow-up a cohort of IVF children. Interests and limits of tools performed to longitudinal follow up for a monocentric cohort].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Follow-up of in vitro fertilization (IVF) children is recommended by the French health authorities. Follow-up procedures were set-up in a medically assisted reproduction unit at the Saint-Joseph Hospital in Marseille. The objective was to ensure effective follow-up. In this context, it is important to determinate weather the designated tools are appropriate for evaluating the desired developmental outcomes. This study was designed to describe the surveillance tool and to demonstrate its usefulness and limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The procedure was initiated in 2004. All existing data for every livebirth child were collected, including data concerning all IVF attempts, medical reports of pregnancy, and child health records. Parents were asked to complete questionnaires and provide their child's personal health records since birth. The quality of the data was evaluated using prenatal and postnatal analysis. The longitudinal anthropometric data of the health records were used to describe the percentiles of weights and heights from birth to 6 years in this population at age-specific reference intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The follow-up concerned 2081 children born since 1995 with a response rate of 68,9%. A brief descriptive analysis was performed for the cohort and for a group of 1053 children aged five years and older, 225 representative personal health records were used to estimate quintiles for anthropometric data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The procedure adopted for the follow-up of in vitro fertilization children meets the established qualitative health requirements. This method provides many benefits with no risk for the children. Data collection from personal health records enabled an exploitation of growth data by including the calculation of anthropometric percentiles in this IVF population. This report presents the first set of IVF child growth standards used as health indicator and health trend measurement.
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine et biologie de la reproduction, hôpital Saint-Joseph, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meddeb
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pauly
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tourame
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rossin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pfister
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boyer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011247:Pregnancy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards