Malaria in pregnancy: the difficulties in measuring birthweight

• Published in: BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology Vol. 118; no. 6; pp. 671 - 678
• Main Authors: Rijken, MJ, Rijken, JA, Papageorghiou, AT, Kennedy, SH, Visser, GHA, Nosten, F, McGready, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2011; Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Birth weight; Birth Weight - physiology; Birthweight; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology); Female; Gestational Age; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Human protozoal diseases; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infectious diseases; Malaria; Malaria - physiopathology; Medical sciences; Parasitic diseases; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic - physiopathology; Pregnancy Outcome; Protozoal diseases; Reference Standards; Review; Ultrasonography, Prenatal; Infection; Pregnancy; Protozoal disease; Malaria; Gynecology; Birth weight; Parasitosis; Obstetrics
• ISSN: 1470-0328; 1471-0528
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2010.02880.x

Please cite this paper as: Rijken M, Rijken J, Papageorghiou A, Kennedy S, Visser G, Nosten F, McGready R. Malaria in pregnancy: the difficulties in measuring birthweight. BJOG 2011;118:671–678. Recommendations for interventions to control malaria in pregnancy are often based on studies using birthweight as the primary endpoint. Differences in birthweight may be attributable partly to methodological difficulties. We performed a structured search of the literature using ‘malaria’, ‘pregnancy’ and ‘birth weight’ as search terms. Of the clinical trials reporting birthweight, only 33% (14/43) gave information about the timing of the measurement and details on the scales used. Seventy seven per cent explained how gestational age was estimated. We propose a standardised method for the measurement and reporting of birthweight in future studies.