Study of correlation between gestational age and new-born foot length and chest circumference

Abstract

Background: Globally, in 2015, 1 million children died on first day of their life. The neonatal mortality rate is declining less rapidly than the mortality rate for children between 1month and 5 years of age. Thus, contribution of the neonatal mortality to the under-five deaths is increasing. Usually as average income of a country increases, it leads to decline in child mortality yet some countries in the fast lane for global economic growth such as India have been in the slower lane for child mortality reduction.Methods: This study was conducted at Sri Aurobindo Medical College and PG Institute, Indore from October 2015 to March 2017 for period of 18 months. Total of 800 live new-borns were included in this study by simple random technique. The statistical analysis of data was done using SPSS for Windows (Version 20.0) software. The correlation of gestational age with new-born foot length and new-born chest circumference was analysed by applying correlation and regression analysis.Results: Foot length is significantly correlated with both gestational age and birth weight with p value of < 0.05 and highly positive correlation coefficient. Chest circumference is significantly correlated with both gestational age and birth weight with p value of < 0.05 and highly positive correlation coefficient.Conclusions: This study tried to identify anthropometric parameter (foot length and chest circumference) which allows for rapid evaluation of the infant for gestational age and provide at risk infants with timely care.