Maltese national birth weight for gestational age centile values

Malta medical journal

Charles Savona-Ventura¹  Victor Grech¹  Patrick Zammit¹  Valerie Zammit¹  Anton Buhagiar¹ 

关键词: Birth weight;    gestational age;    infant newborn;    growth charts;    population;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: University of Malta * Medical School

【 摘 要 】

The relevance of using literature derived birth weight forgestational age centile charts for the Maltese population isdebatable. The study set out to develop national weight forgestational age centile charts and compare these to otherpopulations.Method: Anonymised birth weight for gestational age datawith relevant maternal and neonatal observations over theperiod 1995-2009 were obtained from national statistics. Theformats were standardised and imported into an SQL databasethat enabled filtration for single live births and grouping by sex.The data was scrutinized manually for obvious keying errors.The best estimate of gestational age from the last menstrualperiod (LMP) and expected date of delivery (EDD) was selectedusing established guidelines. A Box-Cox gamma transform wasused to fit the model and generate separate centile charts. Thedata was compared to previous birth weight data reported inMaltese newborns in previous decades and to data from othercountries.Results: A total of 58,899 neonates were included in thestudy and birth weight for gestational age centile charts weregenerated between 23 and 42 weeks of gestation using RevolutionR with VGAM. There has been a statistically significant gradualfall in mean birth weight in Maltese newborns over the lastfour decades. There are also statistically significant differencesbetween the Maltese data and those from other countries.Conclusion: The observed differences make the use ofnational birth weight for gestational age centile charts desirableboth for routine clinical assessment and epidemiologicalstudies.

【 授权许可】

Unknown