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Reliability of length measurements in full-term neonates
T S Johnson1, J L Engstrom, J A Warda
1Department of Maternal-Child Nursing, College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 60612, USA.
Objective:
To describe and compare the intra- and interexaminer reliability of four techniques for measuring length in full-term newborns and to determine whether the different techniques yield significantly different measurements.
Design:
A descriptive study, describing the intra- and interexaminer reliability of four length measurement techniques: crown-heel, supine, paper barrier, and Neo-infantometer. The nurses were blind to their own and to the other nurse's measurements. The order of the nurses and the order in which the measurements were obtained was randomized.
Setting:
Mothers' rooms in a university hospital.
Participants:
Thirty-two healthy full-term newborns.
Interventions:
Length measurements using four different length techniques were obtained twice each by two experienced neonatal nurses.
Main Outcome Measures:
To measure the intra- and interexaminer reliability, the following statistics were calculated: mean absolute differences, standard deviations, technical error of measurement; percentage less than .5 and 1.0 cm, and percentage of error.
Results:
Intra- and interexaminer differences were significantly larger when examiners used the crown-heel measurement technique. Although the intra- and interexaminer reliability of length measurements obtained with the supine, paper barrier, and Neo-infantometer techniques did not differ significantly, the amount of error in these measurements was large.
Conclusions:
Measurements obtained using the crown-heel technique are significantly less reliable than measurements obtained using the supine, paper barrier, or Neo-infantometer techniques.