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Birthweight by gestational age in preterm babies according to a Gaussian mixture model
Stefania Tentoni1, Paola Astolfi, Antonio De Pasquale
1Institute of Applied Mathematics and Computer Technologies, CNR, Pavia, Italy.
Objective:
To provide a statistically sound criterion for identifying implausibly large birthweights for gestational age.
Design:
Review of ISTAT 1990-1994 national newborn records.
Setting:
Italy
Population:
Forty-two thousand and twenty-nine single first and second liveborn preterm babies.
Methods:
Two-component Gaussian mixture models are used to describe the birthweight distributions stratified by gestational age. Implausibly large babies are identified through model-based probabilistic clustering.
Main Outcome Measures:
Gestational age misclassification and weight-for-gestational age centile curves
Results:
Gestational age appears under-estimated by about six weeks in 12.3% of the cases. Large babies are equally present in males and females, but are more frequent in second-borns than in first-borns, even when parity-specific models are fitted.
Conclusions:
The approach allows for a quantification of the gestational age under-estimate error and for data correction through model-based clustering. Correct birthweight distributions and growth curves are also provided.