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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
A low cost, colour coded, hand held spring scale accurately categorises birth weight in low resource settings
L C Mullany1, G L Darmstadt, P Coffey
1Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205-2103, USA.
Archives of Disease in Childhood
|February 9, 2006
Summary
A low-cost, handheld scale accurately classifies newborns into weight categories, aiding in identifying high-risk infants for timely interventions. This device is particularly useful in resource-limited settings where traditional scales are unavailable.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal health
- Medical device evaluation
- Global health
Background:
- Accurate birth weight measurement is crucial for identifying low birth weight (LBW) infants and initiating timely interventions.
- Traditional digital scales can be expensive and inaccessible in resource-limited settings, hindering effective neonatal care.
- Low-cost, portable weighing devices are needed to improve LBW identification in home-birth environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of a low-cost, spring-calibrated, handheld scale for classifying newborn infants into clinically relevant weight categories.
- To compare the performance of the handheld scale against a gold-standard digital baby scale.
- To determine the device's utility in identifying LBW infants in settings with limited access to conventional weighing equipment.
Main Methods:
- A prospective study was conducted in Sarlahi district, Nepal, involving 1890 eligible newborns.
- Measurements were taken using both the test handheld scale and a gold-standard digital scale (precision of 2 g).
- Data from 1820 newborns (96.3%) were analyzed to compare weight classifications.
Main Results:
- The prevalence of low birth weight (<2500 g) was 28.1% based on the gold-standard scale.
- The handheld scale demonstrated high sensitivity (93.7%) and specificity (97.6%) for LBW classification.
- For the <2000 g category, the test device showed 87.8% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity, with high positive predictive values (>91%).
Conclusions:
- The low-cost handheld scale provides accurate and consistent classification of newborn infants into weight categories.
- The device's performance exceeds that of surrogate measures, making it a valuable tool for identifying LBW and high-risk infants.
- This scale is particularly beneficial for home-birth settings and areas lacking conventional weighing scales, facilitating targeted life-saving interventions.
