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Italian standards for crown-heel length and head circumference at birth

A Bossi1, S Milani

  • 1Institute of Biometry and Medical Statistics, University of Milan.

Annals of Human Biology
|July 1, 1987
PubMed

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.

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