A nearly continuous measure of birth weight for gestational age using a United States national reference

BMC Pediatrics

Matthew W Gillman¹  Janet Rich-Edwards²  Ken P Kleinman²  Emily Oken² 

[1] Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA;Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, USA

关键词: ultrasonography;    premature birth;    gestational age;    fetal weight;    MeSH Headings: Birth weight;   

Others  :  1181732
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2431-3-6

 received in 2003-01-31, accepted in 2003-07-08,  发布年份 2003

【 摘 要 】

Background

Fully understanding the determinants and sequelae of fetal growth requires a continuous measure of birth weight adjusted for gestational age. Published United States reference data, however, provide estimates only of the median and lowest and highest 5^th and 10^th percentiles for birth weight at each gestational age. The purpose of our analysis was to create more continuous reference measures of birth weight for gestational age for use in epidemiologic analyses.

Methods

We used data from the most recent nationwide United States Natality datasets to generate multiple reference percentiles of birth weight at each completed week of gestation from 22 through 44 weeks. Gestational age was determined from last menstrual period. We analyzed data from 6,690,717 singleton infants with recorded birth weight and sex born to United States resident mothers in 1999 and 2000.

Results

Birth weight rose with greater gestational age, with increasing slopes during the third trimester and a leveling off beyond 40 weeks. Boys had higher birth weights than girls, later born children higher weights than firstborns, and infants born to non-Hispanic white mothers higher birth weights than those born to non-Hispanic black mothers. These results correspond well with previously published estimates reporting limited percentiles.

Conclusions

Our method provides comprehensive reference values of birth weight at 22 through 44 completed weeks of gestation, derived from broadly based nationwide data. Other approaches require assumptions of normality or of a functional relationship between gestational age and birth weight, which may not be appropriate. These data should prove useful for researchers investigating the predictors and outcomes of altered fetal growth.

【 授权许可】

   
2003 Oken et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

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