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Italian standards for crown-heel length and head circumference at birth
Insights
This study provides cross-sectional standards for newborn length and head circumference in Italian infants. These standards are useful for assessing neonate size and proportion, applicable across diverse Italian regions.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal anthropometry
- Perinatal medicine
- Public health
Background:
- Established cross-sectional standards are crucial for neonatal assessment.
- Previous Italian intrauterine growth charts had limitations in applicability.
- Multicenter surveys are valuable for generating robust reference data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish reliable cross-sectional standards for crown-heel length and head circumference at birth for Italian neonates.
- To provide a tool for assessing the size and proportion of neonates across different gestational ages (32-43 weeks).
- To differentiate the utility of cross-sectional standards from longitudinal growth charts for fetal development monitoring.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 16,336 reference neonates from six Italian towns (1973-1981).
- Included only single, liveborn infants without congenital anomalies and from mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies.
- Analyzed anthropometric measurements (crown-heel length, head circumference) to derive standards.
Main Results:
- Presented cross-sectional standards for crown-heel length and head circumference.
- Demonstrated negligible effects of social and environmental variations across the six towns on neonate dimensions.
- Standards are applicable to all Italian neonates between 32 and 43 weeks of gestation.
Conclusions:
- The derived cross-sectional standards are valuable for assessing neonatal size and proportion.
- These standards are broadly applicable to the Italian neonate population.
- Longitudinal growth charts are recommended for fetal development monitoring, as current ultrasonography data is insufficient to replace cross-sectional standards.
Abstract:
Cross-sectional standards for crown-heel length and head circumference at birth are presented, based on 16336 reference neonates born in six towns in North, Central and South Italy, between 1973 and 1981, and included in a multicentre survey of perinatal preventive medicine. Single liveborn infants, with no congenital anomalies, of mothers with no risk factor for pregnancy, such as diabetes, hypertension, vaginal bleeding, previous stillbirths or abortions, were considered as the reference group. These were treated as a sample drawn from one reference population, regardless of birthplace. Large differences in social and environmental conditions typical of the six towns appeared to exert negligible effects on the reference neonates' dimensions. Unlike intrauterine growth charts published previously in Italy, these standards apply to any Italian neonate born between 32 and 43 weeks of gestation. Cross-sectional standards derived from anthropometric measurements of infants having different gestational ages should be regarded mainly as a tool for assessing size and proportion of neonates, rather than as growth charts for monitoring fetal development. This latter task should be fulfilled by longitudinal growth charts: to date, intrauterine ultrasonography has not provided data sufficient to replace cross-sectional standards.