Abstract

Background: Since decades attempts have been made to find an alternative measurement for birth weight estimation of the newborns. Appropriate and timely care of a low birth weight newborn is important but most of the deliveries are conducted at home in rural areas where adequate facilities to weigh a newborn does not exist. Newborn Foot length has been studied by various authors as proxy measurement which can be executed easily in sick and preterm newborns where minimal handling and movements are preferred. This study was done to find correlation between foot length and birth weight.

Materials & Method: Birth weight and foot length of 611 babies born in a tertiary level teaching hospital during the period from November 2014 to April 2015 were analysed. Babies with limb deformities were excluded from the study. The birth weight of babies were recorded in electronic weighing scale and documented in kilograms. The foot length was measured and documented in centimetres, from posterior most prominence of foot to the tip of the longest toe of the right foot. Correlation of foot length with birth weight were statistically analysed by correlation and regression analysis.

Results: Of the 611 neonates studied, male neonates were more than female neonates in number consisting 54.8% and 45.2% respectively. The birth weight of neonates studied ranged from 1.5-4.41 kg. Low birth weight neonates in present study constituted 86 (14.0%) of which 31 (36.1%) were preterm and 55 (63.9%) were term. In present study, constituted 554 term neonates (90.7%) and 57 preterm neonates (9.3%). The foot length of preterm neonates ranged from 6.4-7.0 cm with the mean foot length of 6.8232 cm. The foot length of term neonates ranged from 7.1-8.7 cm with a mean foot length of 7.9084 cm. In the study, the foot length correlated significantly with birth weight. Correlation coefficient (r-value) was highly positive for birth weight (r=0.923). Our study showed that there was a positive linear correlation between foot length and birth weight in babies and the correlation coefficient (r-value) of low birth weight babies was lower (r=0.768). A regression equation (Birth weight = 0.923 x Foot Length – 3.705) was derived based on this study with birth weight and foot length being the dependent and independent variable respectively.

Keywords: Foot Length; Birth Weight; Neonate; Plastic stiff transparent ruler; Electronic Weigh Scale.