Neonatal mid upper arm circumference as surrogate of birth weight

ABSTRACT

Background: Recording an accurate birth weight by primary health worker has been a problem in rural areas, leading to search for an alternative, inexpensive, age independent and noninvasive method to predict newborn birth weight and wellbeing. With this background I aimed to found out whether the neonatal-MUAC is associated with birth weight or not?Methods: This hospital based prospective observational study was conducted in SNCU and postnatal ward, Kamla Raja Hospital, G.R. Medical College, and Gwalior (M.P). A total of 1303 newborns were included in the study. The Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) of newborns were taken and Birth weight recorded were filled in a proforma.Results: Total 1303 neonates were evaluated. The mean MUAC and birth weight in preterm was found to be 1854.80'387.3 and 7.47'0.9 as compared to full term newborn having mean birth weight(2818.95'328.1) and mean MUAC (9.58+0.7).The Pearson coefficient of correlation between neonatal MUAC (N-MUAC) and birth weight was found to be r= 0.987 and p<0.01. Birth weight can be predicted from regression equation Birth weight (gms)=422.99 (N-MUAC) + (-1272.66). Cut-off value of neonatal mid upper arm circumference (N-MUAC) was found to be 8.85cm to predict low birth weight newborn.Conclusions: Birth weight of newborn can be predicted from neonatal mid upper arm circumference (N-MUAC) in areas where the conventional scale are not easily available for measuring the birth weight of newborn.