Ethnic variations in birthweight percentiles in Kuwait

Abstract

The objectives of this retrospective study were to assess the effect of ethnicity on birthweight percentiles and to compare ethnic-specific percentiles with other references. Analysis was made of 35 768 singleton live births from 22 to 44 completed weeks of gestation at two major obstetric hospitals in Kuwait, after exclusion of data with inaccurate gestational age, major congenital abnormalities, stillbirths, and outlying birthweights. The population included four major ethnic groups: Gulf Arabs, Mediterranean Arabs, Egyptians, and a group combining Indians and Southeast Asians. Total population and ethnic-specific smoothed birthweight percentiles according to gestational age were developed. Indians-Asians had the smallest birthweights, the highest prevalence of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birthweights and the lowest prevalence of large-for-gestational-age (LGA) birthweights. On the contrary, Egyptians had the largest birthweights, the lowest prevalence of SGA birthweights and the highest prevalence of LGA birthweights. Plotting our birthweights on a reference from Canada resulted in a low prediction rate for SGA and a low sensitivity in identifying LGA of all ethnic groups. We conclude that interpretation of fetal growth and birthweight should involve locally derived and ethnically specific percentiles based on accurately calculated gestational age.