Customized birthweight standards for a Spanish population

Figueras, F.; Meler, E.; Iraola, A.; Eixarch, E.; Coll, O.; Figueras, J.; Francis, A.; Gratacos, E.; Gardosi, J.

doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2006.12.015

« Previous Next »European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Volume 136, Issue 1 , Pages 20-24, January 2008

Customized birthweight standards for a Spanish population

Received 4 July 2006; received in revised form 9 October 2006; accepted 28 December 2006. published online 22 January 2007.

Abstract

Objective

To analyse the biological factors affecting birthweight and to derive customized birthweight standards for a Spanish population.

Methods

A retrospective cohort was created with all the singleton pregnancies delivered at term and free of pathology in our Institution. Birthweight was modeled by multiple linear regression from maternal (ethnic origin, maternal height, booking weight, smoking, and parity), and fetal (gender, gestational age) characteristics.

Results

In addition to gestational age and sex, height, booking weight, ethnic origin, parity, and smoking all have significant and independent effects on birthweight. Women from East-Asia, Morocco and South-America had newborns on average 83g, 74g and 95g heavier than White-European Spanish women. The effect of smoking was found to be dose-related.

Conclusion

We found the relative effect of the maternal and fetal characteristics to be very similar to that reported in previous studies. We report coefficients for ethnic groups that account for a sizeable proportion of the population composition of several European countries.

Keywords: Fetal weight, Birthweight, Growth curves, Ethnicity