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Malaria in pregnancy: the difficulties in measuring birthweight
Author(s) -
Rijken MJ,
Rijken JA,
Papageorghiou AT,
Kennedy SH,
Visser GHA,
Nosten F,
McGready R
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
bjog: an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.157
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1471-0528
pISSN - 1470-0328
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2010.02880.x
Subject(s) - pregnancy , malaria , medicine , birth weight , obstetrics , psychological intervention , gestational age , pediatrics , biology , immunology , genetics , psychiatry
Please cite this paper as: Rijken M, Rijken J, Papageorghiou A, Kennedy S, Visser G, Nosten F, McGready R. Malaria in pregnancy: the difficulties in measuring birthweight. BJOG 2011;118:671–678. Recommendations for interventions to control malaria in pregnancy are often based on studies using birthweight as the primary endpoint. Differences in birthweight may be attributable partly to methodological difficulties. We performed a structured search of the literature using ‘malaria’, ‘pregnancy’ and ‘birth weight’ as search terms. Of the clinical trials reporting birthweight, only 33% (14/43) gave information about the timing of the measurement and details on the scales used. Seventy seven per cent explained how gestational age was estimated. We propose a standardised method for the measurement and reporting of birthweight in future studies.