Effect of Weekly Long-Acting Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy Compared to Daily Growth Hormone on Children With Short Stature: A Meta-Analysis

BackgroundWe performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of weekly long-acting growth hormone replacement therapy compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature.MethodsA systematic literature search up to April 2021 was performed and 11 studies included 1,232 children with short stature treated with growth hormone replacement therapy at the start of the study; 737 of them were using weekly long-acting growth hormone replacement therapy and 495 were using daily growth hormone. They were reporting relationships between the efficacy and safety of long-acting growth hormone replacement therapy and daily growth hormone in children with short stature. We calculated the odds ratio (OR), and mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the efficacy and safety of weekly long-acting growth hormone replacement therapy compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature using the dichotomous or continuous method with a random or fixed-effect model.ResultsLong-acting growth hormone replacement therapy had significantly lower height standard deviation scores chronological age (MD, −0.10; 95% CI, −0.13 to −0.08, p <0.001), and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (MD, −0.69; 95% CI, −1.09 to −0.30, p <0.001) compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature.However, growth hormone replacement therapy had no significantly difference in height velocity (MD, −0.09; 95% CI, −0.69–0.5, p = 0.76), height standard deviation scores bone age (MD, −0.04; 95% CI, −0.10–0.02, p = 0.16), insulin-like growth factor 1 standard deviation scores (MD, 0.26; 95% CI, −0.26–0.79, p = 0.33), and incidence of adverse events (OR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.90–1.50, p = 0.25) compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature.ConclusionsLong-acting growth hormone replacement therapy had significantly lower height standard deviation scores chronological age, and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature. However, growth hormone replacement therapy had no significant difference in height velocity, height standard deviation scores bone age, insulin-like growth factor 1 standard deviation scores, and incidence of adverse events compared to daily growth hormone in children with short stature. Further studies are required to validate these findings.