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Parental infant jaundice colour card design successfully validated by comparing it with total serum bilirubin
Guo-Chang Xue1, Ming-Xing Ren1, Lin-Na Shen1
1Department of Pediatrics, The 9th People's Hospital of Wuxi Affiliated to Suzhou University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
Insights
Parents can use a new jaundice color card to accurately measure newborn jaundice. The cheek is the most reliable site for measurement, showing strong correlation with serum bilirubin levels.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal Medicine
- Medical Devices
- Diagnostic Tools
Background:
- Neonatal jaundice is a common condition requiring monitoring.
- Accurate assessment of jaundice is crucial for timely intervention.
- Existing methods for jaundice assessment can be resource-intensive.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and validate a jaundice color card for parental use in assessing neonatal jaundice.
- To compare the accuracy of the jaundice color card with total serum bilirubin levels.
- To identify the optimal body site for jaundice measurement using the card.
Main Methods:
- A jaundice color card was developed for parents to measure newborn jaundice.
- 106 term Chinese neonates were included in the study.
- Measurements from the card were compared with total serum bilirubin levels obtained through photometric determination.
Main Results:
- Jaundice color card measurements from the forehead, cheek, and sternum showed strong correlations with total serum bilirubin.
- The cheek measurement site demonstrated the highest accuracy (Area Under Curve = 0.985) when total serum bilirubin >13 mg/dL was the cut-off.
- Mean differences between card and serum bilirubin measurements were low, particularly for the cheek (0.3 mg/dL).
Conclusions:
- The jaundice color card is a valid tool for parental measurement of jaundice in Chinese neonates.
- The cheek is identified as the most accurate site for measurement using the jaundice color card.
- This tool can empower parents in monitoring neonatal jaundice effectively.
Aim:
We designed a jaundice colour card that could be used by the parents of neonates and validated it by comparing it with total serum bilirubin levels.
Methods:
There were 106 term Chinese neonates in the study. The majority weighed between 2500 g and 3499 g (63%) and had a gestational age of 37-40 weeks (77%). The jaundice colour card and photometric determination were used to screen for neonatal jaundice and compared with serum bilirubin.
Results:
The bilirubin levels were measured by mothers using the jaundice colour card, and 67% of the measurements were taken at 11-20 days (range 3-30). The measurements at the infant's forehead, cheek and sternum showed strong correlations with total serum bilirubin. The mean differences between the total serum bilirubin and the jaundice colour card measurements from the forehead, cheek and sternum were 1.9 mg/dL, 0.3 mg/dL and 1.5 mg/dL, respectively. When total serum bilirubin >13 mg/dL was used as the cut-off point, the areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves were 0.934 for the forehead, 0.985 for the cheek and 0.966 for the sternum.
Conclusion:
We established the validity of the jaundice colour card as a parental measurement tool for jaundice in Chinese neonates, and the cheek was the best measurement site.
