Antenatal Risk Scoring Scale for Predication of Low Birth Weight and Its Validity

Area of Science:

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Public Health
• Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Background:

• Early prediction of low birth weight (LBW) is crucial for timely interventions.
• Identifying at-risk pregnancies can significantly improve neonatal outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an antenatal risk scoring scale for predicting LBW.
• To establish a tool for early identification of pregnancies at risk for LBW.

Main Methods:

• Collected data on diet, occupation, and rest from 1876 pregnant women (cohort) and a subset of 380.
• Utilized multivariate analysis and relative risks (RRs) via SPSS v16.
• Validated the scoring system on an independent set of 251 mothers using ROC curve analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified risk factors: infrequent meals, hard work, insufficient sleep, illiteracy, antenatal morbidity, low weight gain, low maternal weight, and anemia.
• Developed a scoring system with a cutoff of 12 (98.6% sensitivity, 41.1% specificity).
• A second cutoff of 15 was identified based on LBW prevalence.

Conclusions:

• The developed antenatal risk score effectively categorizes pregnancies into low (<12), moderate (12-15), and high (>15) risk for LBW.
• The scoring system demonstrates good sensitivity and specificity for LBW prediction.
• This tool can aid healthcare providers in targeted interventions for high-risk pregnancies.