DETECTION OF LOW BIRTH - WEIGHT NEW BORNS BY ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS IN IRAN

Birth weight is an important indicator of child survival. Appropriate and timely care of a newborn specially if he or she is born with low birth weight is important but this is difficult in developing countries since most of the deliveries are conducted at home where adequate facilities to weight a new born does not exist. This study was conducted to find out a surrogate which could efficiently be used for detecting low birth weight babies at birth when no weighing machine is around. A total of 1050 neonates, between 32 and 43 weeks of gestational age were measured with in 24 h of birth to interpret the validity of anthropometric measurements. Low birth weight was observed in 11.6 percent of the neonates. the study showed a significant correlation (P<0.001) between chest circumference, mid-arm circumference ami birthweight. A chest circumference of <30.5 cm and a mid-arm circumference of < 10 cm had the best sensitivity and specificity for identifying neonates with a birth weight of <2500g. Chest circumference and/or mid-arm circumference can be used as simple and reliable indicators for predicting low birth weight when ever weighing of new borns is not feasible