Predicting neonatal outcomes: birthweight, body mass index or ponderal index?

• Published in: Journal of perinatal medicine Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 509 - 513
• Main Authors: Tamim, Hala, Beydoun, Hind, Itani, Mohammad, Khogali, Mustafa, Chokr, Imad, Yunis, Khalid A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Walter de Gruyter 01.01.2004; New York, NY De Gruyter
• Subjects: Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Birth Weight; birthweight; Body Mass Index; Delivery. Postpartum. Lactation; Emergency and intensive care: neonates and children. Prematurity. Sudden death; Female; Gestational Age; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Head - anatomy & histology; Hospitals - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - mortality; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - pathology; Intensive care medicine; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal - statistics & numerical data; Lebanon - epidemiology; Male; Medical sciences; Patient Admission; ponderal index; Predictive Value of Tests; Pregnancy; Prospective Studies; ROC Curve; Sensitivity and Specificity; Severity of Illness Index; Lebanon; Human; ponderal index; Body mass index; Neonatal; Newborn; Prognosis; Prediction; Birthweight; Neonatology; Evolution; Birth weight; Predictive factor
• ISSN: 0300-5577; 1619-3997
• DOI: 10.1515/JPM.2004.120

Aims: To compare birthweight (BW), body mass index (BMI) and ponderal index (PI) as predictors of selected short-term (ST) outcomes, namely Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admission and prolonged hospitalization (PH), among newborn (NB) infants. Methods: Data was collected prospectively on 9,226 infants born during one year at nine tertiary care hospitals in Greater Beirut, Lebanon. The predictive abilities of BW, BMI and PI were compared using the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves and sensitivity analysis was performed at the optimal cut-off points for the best anthropometric measurement. Results: The area under the ROC curve suggested superior discriminative power for BW as compared to BMI or PI, as a predictor of NICU admission (ROC area = 0.73) and PH (ROC area = 0.74). The optimal BW cut-off point was 2750 g (sensitivity: 0.49; specificity: 0.89) and 2950 g (sensitivity: 0.62; specificity: 0.78) for NICU admission and PH, respectively. Conclusion: In our population of NB infants, BW – a crude measure of fetal growth – is a better predictor than either BMI – a measure of adiposity in adults and children – or PI – a measure of thinness at birth – for selected ST outcomes in NB infants.