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Global child health
Anthropometric measures that identify premature and low birth weight newborns in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study with community follow-up
  1. Netsanet Workneh Gidi1,
  2. Melkamu Berhane1,
  3. Tsinuel Girma1,
  4. Alemseged Abdissa2,
  5. Ruth Lim3,
  6. Katherine Lee3,4,
  7. Cattram Nguyen3,4,
  8. Fiona Russell3,4
  1. 1 Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
  2. 2 Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Pathology, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
  3. 3 Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4 Department of Pediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Netsanet Workneh Gidi, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia; konetsanet{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objective To investigate foot length (FL), chest circumference (CHC) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) as predictors of low birth weight (LBW) or prematurity, and to describe the agreement between the gestational age (GA) assessments ascertained by the New Ballard Score (NBS) and the Eregie model.

Methods A hospital-based cross-sectional study with community follow-up in a subset was conducted in Jimma University Medical Center, Ethiopia. GA (NBS and Eregie model), weight, FL, CHC and MUAC were measured at birth. Anthropometrics were repeated at 5 days of age.

Results The optimal cut-offs indicative of LBW were ≤7.7 cm for FL; ≤31.2 cm for CHC and ≤9.8 cm for MUAC. CHC, MUAC and FL identified LBW with sensitivities (95% CI) of 91.6 (86.9 to 95), 83.7 (77.8 to 88.5) and 84.2 (78.4 to 88.9), and specificities (95% CI) of 85.4 (83.3 to 87.4), 90.2 (88.4 to 91.9) and 73.9 (71.3 to 76.4), respectively. CHC, MUAC and FL identified prematurity with sensitivities of 83.8 (76.7 to 89.4), 83.1 (75.9 to 88.9) and 81.7 (74.3 to 87.7), and specificities of 81.1 (78.9 to 83.3), 63.4 (60.7 to 66.1) and 77.0 (74.6 to 79.3), respectively. The cut-offs identified have comparable diagnostic ability for LBW and prematurity when measurements are repeated on day 5 of age. The GA assessment by the NBS and the Eregie model gave similar results, with the mean difference of 1.2 weeks.

Conclusion CHC, MUAC and FL taken on day 1 and 5 after birth could be used as diagnostic tools for LBW or prematurity. The Eregie model for GA estimation gives similar results to the NBS.

  • Prematurity
  • LBW
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317490

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @netsanetw

    • Contributors FR, TG and AA conceptualised and designed the study. NWG coordinated and supervised data collection and drafted the initial manuscript. MB collected the data. KL and CN contributed to the design and statistical analysis. RL reviewed the data collection and study procedures. All authors revised the work critically and approved the final manuscript as submitted and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

    • Funding International Pediatric Association and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Theme grant; FR was supported by a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and NHMRC TRIP Fellowship.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval This study was performed according to the protocol approved by the Jimma University Ethics Review Committee and The University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (Ethics ID: 1442168).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available on reasonable request.

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